Salvation for the Broken Children
by Ocena Strex
Summary: When Sephiroth is found dead in his home, Tseng and his team of investigators set out to find the murderer. But as they slowly get closer to solving the case, Tseng makes a discovery that makes him doubt his determination to do so.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Welcome to the first chapter of my new story!

To any of my faithful Fractured Love readers, welcome back! To any new readers, welcome, I hope you'll enjoy your stay!

With this story I've decided to do something really different for a change. I'm not really into detectives, or watch series like CSI or Bones a lot. Still, the urge to write this was just too strong. It was inspired by a dream, which isn't uncommon for me. And it's usually those kinds of ideas that stick and nag until I put them to paper. So I did :).

Now this was originally intended to be a one-shot, but as I progressed I found myself adding scenes for more clarity and fleshing out characters. In short, I suck at writing one-shots. So by the time I had reached approximately 14,000 words, and still had quite a bit to write, I decided to serialise it instead. And here it is!

Just to make a few things clear, this story won't be as long as Fractured Love is going to be. I guesstimate it'll probably become about 5 chapters long. Updates will be on Sunday every two weeks unless something comes up. I try to alternate working on both stories every week, but FL will stay my main focus. If I hit a snag with that one and need more time, it might delay an update for this story. I'm not expecting it to happen, but I'll give you a fair warning anyway.

Now I've rambled on for too long. I'll just get to some warnings for this story and let you get to reading. Enjoy!

 **Warnings:** Though rated T, this story might be slightly disturbing to those sensitive to the subject. I don't want to spoil too much, but let's just say the subject fits into the category Special Victim's Unit. You are safe for this chapter, but reader's discretion is advised for later chapters. I'll give you fair warning in advance.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters.

0o0o0

 **Chapter 1**

The crime scene was both neat and messy. That was the first thing detective Tseng noticed. The body was lying in the victim's living room. A quick survey of said room immediately told the detective that the person had died at the spot his body had been found. There was no other blood, no sign of struggle, no of nothing of note really. It was like the murderer had simply stepped in, killed the man, and left.

But that in itself also made the crime scene messy. This had been a brutal kill. No grace, no show, no message left behind. This immediately made Tseng cross off any of the known serial killers they had yet to hunt down from his list. They always made sure the police knew that the crime was theirs. This also included any of the known hitmen. After all, his victim had been someone of great importance before he died. It could have been an action from an opposing company, but this didn't fit with any of their known profiles, and was clearly the action of a deviant.

Tseng was joined by Reno, his second in command, as he came to stand next to him. The red-head whistled while he regarded the dead body in front of them, "Damn. Seems like whoever murdered this guy didn't really like his pretty face, yo."

Tseng nodded, his eyes drawn to the victim's face. It had been severely bashed up to the point where it would have been difficult to get an id on him if it wasn't for the fact that there was one physical feature that served as conclusive evidence. With his long silver hair spread around him, this could only be Sephiroth, head of security and poster boy of Shinra, one of the most powerful companies in the entire world.

"You think this is the work of AVALANCHE?" Reno inquired after only a short moment of silence.

"No." Tseng disagreed with a shake of his head.

He sighed. Upon hearing whose body had been found he'd actually hoped that it would have all the signs of AVALANCHE. Nobody knew whether it was a single person, or a complete organisation, but what they did know was that their targets were important Shinra employees. Tseng personally had been working overtime in an attempt to track down the elusive killer or killers, and had fully expected this specific murder would bring him one step closer. Instead he would have to deal with another killer.

"They would have made sure we knew it was them." He continued as he looked around the room, gesturing at the walls, "They would have used his blood to write down their name and slogans on the walls, but they haven't. Also, this is a bold move even for them. They wouldn't have chosen Sephiroth as their victim unless they felt certain they could successfully bring down Shinra." He shook his head again, "No, this isn't AVALNACHE's doing. I suspect this might be a new killer."

"Another person fighting against Shinra?"

"Not necessarily." He disagreed again as he crouched next to the body to observe it more closely, "From what I can tell right now there is his beaten up face and this bullet wound in the chest here. Though Elena will have to figure out which one was the cause of death it almost seems too personal."

Reno cocked his head to the side as he considered his superior officer's words. Indeed it was strange. No sign of a struggle, yet the man had clearly been beaten up. The thing that was odd was that it seemed that it was only his face that was attacked. Other than the bullet wound, the body seemed to be in good condition. Tseng was right that it seemed to be too personal, like someone wanted to kill him, and that it had to do something with his face.

"He must have done something really bad if some person found the courage to kill him inside his own house, yo." Reno noted.

"Indeed." Tseng agreed as he stood back up, "That's what makes this person even more dangerous. We should start finding some leads immediately." He turned around to face his second in command, "Are you done surveying the crime scene?"

Reno nodded, "Rude was finishing up with all the photos. Once he's done they should be ready to bring the body back to the labs. Elena is on standby, and so is Cissnei for any other clues we'll find. We haven't really found anything of note so far though. Whoever did this made sure to clean up."

Tseng nodded in approval, taking one final look at the victim's body before turning to leave, "So we do not only have a brave murderer, but a clean one as well."

"Dangerous indeed, yo." Reno replied with a grin, "Exciting though. The chief will be very pleased once we bring this fucker in."

Tseng couldn't agree more, though it was with less excitement than his subordinate. Veld was a difficult man to please. He didn't take failure well, and was also constantly pressing Tseng to get him AVALANCHE. That wasn't surprising considering the amount of pressure president Shinra most likely put on it behind the scenes. If Tseng could just find out who did this, it would put him back into Veld's graces somewhat and save the police department Shinra's wrath, especially since the victim was a very important man.

0o0o0

Tseng was never a man to be impressed easily. That was one of the qualities that made him such an excellent detective. He didn't let the sight of severely mutilated victims get to him, or the sob stories of those who committed the crime. But whenever he drove past the Shinra building, he couldn't help but feel some sense of awe. It hadn't abated over the few times in the past half year he had been inside this building because of the AVALANCHE investigation.

With its seventy floors it was easily the tallest building in Midgar. It was also positioned smack down in the middle of the city, like some sort of beacon. The nature of Shinra as a company was slightly obscure. It was essentially an electric power company, but with the discovery of Mako energy, it had soon overpowered the market and was now the only company in the world to supply electricity to the masses. They had no competition and no opposition asides from the incidental fanatic who claimed Mako was harmful to both man and the planet.

In any case the company had accumulated a lot of power in the span of a few short years, and it sometimes felt that they had a more political role than was officially decreed. Tseng supposed the sheer size of their headquarters only strengthened that opinion, for it surely was much too large to be simply the office building of a power company.

But Tseng didn't allow such thoughts to occupy his mind for very long. It wasn't his place to question the nature of Shinra. He was simply here today because one of their most important employees had been found dead inside of his own home.

"This place gives me the creeps, yo." Reno commented from beside him, flicking the ash from his lit cigarette before popping it back between his lips.

Tseng couldn't help but slightly agree internally with the redhead, but didn't show any outward signs of it for the sake of staying professional, "It shouldn't matter whether it's Shinra or some small rundown business you're visiting. Your role as a detective is to investigate all aspects of the victim's life, including his workplace. Treat it as you would any other situation Reno."

"Eh, you know me boss." Reno grinned, "Just leave it to me. I know how to snoop around."

Tseng nodded in silent approval. Reno could occasionally appear to be flippant, not taking anything serious at all, or he needed a push in the right direction in terms of thinking, but there was one thing that Tseng could entrust to him without any doubts in his ability. Reno knew how to scour any place for possible clues or information on the case. His charming demeanour could even get information out of the toughest suspects. It was exactly that demeanour that made people underestimate him, but Tseng knew better. Reno could be deadly, in any way, shape or form, and had deserved his trust over the years they had worked together.

They walked inside together, entering a wide open lobby. There was a reception desk right in front of them. Two large open staircases curved along either side of the room, leading to a floor higher up where a few exhibitions were on display. The latter featured mostly vehicles that could run on Mako, yet another project that Shinra concerned itself with.

Tseng went straight for the reception desk though, not interested at anything else the building had to offer. He had a crime to solve. Nothing else mattered.

"Welcome to Shinra. How can I help you?" The woman behind the reception desk asked the two men cheerfully.

"I'm detective Tseng of the MPD, and this is my colleague Reno." Tseng said as both he and Reno flashed their badges, "It is paramount that we speak to the president immediately."

The receptionist visibly paled. Why would two detectives want to see the president? She couldn't deny the request though, "Jus-Just one second." She stammered as she quickly fumbled for the intercom.

"Of course." Tseng replied calmly, hoping to put the woman at ease a bit, though failing miserably with his stiff demeanour.

Reno decided to step in then, flashing the woman a charming smile, "Ah, don't worry toots. Your boss hasn't done anything wrong. We just need to talk to him for a bit, yo."

"Right." She replied back, feeling a bit reassured by Reno's attitude. She even shot him a small smile back while the device rang a couple of times before someone on the other end picked up, "Moira, there are two detectives from the MPD here who wish to see the president. Is he available right now?"

"The president actually told me he expected them, and wishes to see them right away. Please let them through." Moira replied.

"Okay. Thank you." The woman thanked before disconnecting. She then turned her attention back to the two men in front of her, "The president is expecting you. His office is on the top floor. His secretary, Moira, will let you in."

"Thank toots. You've been really helpful." Reno replied with another charming grin.

The woman blushed and ducked her head. She briefly rummaged through one of her desk drawers to pull out a key card, "You can find the elevators over there to my left." She pointed in the right direction, "You'll need this key card to access the top floor. Please return it to me before you leave the building."

"Sweet! Keep up the good work Catherine."

Besides the blush the woman's eyes grew wide, wondering how the redhead knew her name. But then she remembered the nametag she was wearing with her name stamped right on it. Silly her, she shouldn't be thinking there was any other reason the charming, and rather handsome, man in front of her would know. But as the two men started walking away to the elevators, she saw how Reno briefly turned around to give her a small salute, accompanied by that charming grin. She swooned right at that moment. Perhaps having the two detectives visiting Shinra wasn't such a bad thing after all.

0o0o0

The first thing Reno noticed about president Shinra's office as he stepped in was that it wasn't big. No, it was massive. The size of the room could easily count as a very generous hotel room. The size was only emphasised by the fact that it held little furniture, other than the equally massive desk behind which the president was seated.

"Tseng." The president started after he had taken a fat cigar from his lips, "Considering you are standing here I take it you do not have good news for me."

"I'm afraid not mister president." Tseng concurred.

Shinra let out an irritated sigh. He placed the cigar back between his lips and took a long drag, "Those damn bastards. I never thought they would have gotten to Sephiroth of all people."

"Sir, if I may, I do not believe this to be an action made by AVALANCHE." Tseng spoke up, knowing what the president had been referring to.

"Oh? And how so?"

"AVALANCHE always makes sure we know they did it, but this crime scene was clear of any signs."

Shinra hummed and folded his hands as he leaned forward on his desk, thinking about what the detective had just told him, "But who else could it be? Sephiroth isn't one for taking risks."

"Judging from the state we found the body in, I believe this might have been a totally unrelated action by an individual over a personal matter."

Shinra's stare was hard as he looked at Tseng, "I find that hard to believe detective. It could also be that AVALANCHE is trying to distract you."

"Perhaps." Tseng admitted, who wasn't deterred in the slightest by the glare, "But my gut feeling is telling me differently."

"I have no uses for gut feelings Tseng, only results." The president interrupted Tseng before taking another drag from his cigar.

"Of course mister president. However, no matter the case, I will investigate Sephiroth's death further. As part of my investigation, I would like to speak with those who worked closest to him."

"Fine then. I'll have Moira make sure you'll have access to the security floors."

"Thank you mister president. We'll be on our way then."

Tseng turned around to walk away, but before he and Reno had left the office, Shinra spoke up again, "AVALANCHE has been terrorising my company for nearly half a year now. It's bad for business and my reputation. You'd better solve this case quickly Tseng, and get AVALANCHE in as well. Otherwise you might find yourself in need of a new job."

"Duly noted." Tseng replied stoically as he continued to walk out the door.

"Woah boss! Who does that guy think he is to make such a threat, yo?" Reno blurted out as soon as the door was closed behind them.

"Be careful with what you're saying Reno. Shinra is more powerful than you might think." Tseng replied softly, glancing at the bewildered expression of his colleague, "Technically he's the one who's paying your bills. Shinra and the MPD may not be related on an official level, but I know that the president has got some connections with Veld, so he might very well be able to make his threat reality."

Reno whistled, "Damn. We'd better find whatever fucker did this soon then."

"Indeed." Tseng agreed with a nod.

0o0o0

As massive as the president's office was, as normal sized was the main security floor. It held all the necessities an office needed: A few desks with computers for the necessary paperwork, some lockers to put away personal stuff while on the job along the side, a coffee machine tucked away into an opposite corner, and a separate break room with a few couches and a tv. It wasn't that they were cramped together, but considering how big the office on the top floor was, this just seemed…more mundane to Reno.

He didn't comment on it though as he was following Tseng's lead. His superior officer had been here a few times over the past few months for the AVALANCHE investigation. There was even a security officer that he worked alongside with, so he knew his way around. That was a good thing, since the office space was empty as of this moment. They could hear voices come from the break room though, so decided to follow those.

Tseng entered with a brief but firm knock on the door. It successfully caught the attention of the room's three occupants, "Tseng." The shortest man addressed the newcomer, "What are you doing here?"

"Zack." Tseng acknowledged with a nod, "I'm afraid that I've got some bad news for you. We found your boss dead in his house this morning."

"What?!" One of the other people exclaimed, "Sephiroth is dead? Impossible!"

"Gen." Zack tried to admonish his colleague, though he was clearly shocked by the news too, "Please try and calm down."

"How can I calm down knowing that Sephiroth is dead?!" Gen countered.

"Genesis." The third one murmured softly, "I know you're upset. We all are, but this is not the time for this."

"Angeal…it's just…please excuse me for a moment." And with those words Genesis stormed out of the room.

"Sorry about that Tseng." Zack apologised as he rubbed the back of his head, "We were all worried when our boss hadn't come in for work, and he and Seph were very close."

"No need to apologise Zack." Tseng reassured him, "His reaction is quite understandable."

"Well then." Angeal spoke up again, "Could you tell us what happened?"

"We do not know much yet I'm afraid. We were called in as soon as the president noticed that Sephiroth hadn't come in for work yet. At his house we discovered his remains in his living room with a bullet wound in the chest and his face bashed up. Other than that, anything that has been found on the scene still needs to be investigated. Meanwhile I decided to come here and try to find some leads."

"Wait a minute." Zack spoke up again, "That doesn't sound like AVALANCHE at all."

"Indeed it doesn't." Tseng agreed, "I also don't think they did it. That's why I'm asking you whether you have any idea who could have done this."

Zack and Angeal shared a look, "You think someone from the company did this?" Zack wondered.

"It's possible." Tseng admitted, "There were no signs of a break in or a struggle. Whoever did this must have known Sephiroth enough to have the latter allow him inside his home."

"Indeed. Sephiroth wasn't the kind of man to easily let people into his house." Angeal informed him, frowning slightly as he thought about the case, "But I wouldn't know of anyone from the workplace to do something like this."

"He didn't have any enemies?"

"Not that I know of. Seph has always been a person you need to get used to at first, but he was a good boss and treated everyone fairly."

"But even then Seph wouldn't have let just any of his colleagues inside of his home." Zack added, "He kept social interactions limited to a very small group. For as far as I know he only considered Gen, Angeal and I to be his friends."

Tseng hummed as he thought about it. From what he could tell it was unlikely that any of the three men who were mentioned could be considered as suspects. Zack wouldn't have admitted to be one of the select few who could gain easy access to Sephiroth's house, and he didn't notice any tension in Angeal when he was mentioned as well, clearly hinting that he wasn't concerned about the fact and therefore not involved. That left Genesis, but somehow Tseng felt that he wasn't involved either. It would still do well to investigate though.

"Reno, I would like you to talk to every person from this department to make sure we're not overlooking any potential subjects."

"On it, boss." Reno replied with firm determination, glad to finally be able to do something worthwhile in this investigation, "But what about you?"

"I'd like to get access to Sephiroth's office. I might be able to get some clues there."

"Good idea." Zack agreed, "I'm not sure what you'll be able to find, but I can let you in anyway."

"Good. Lead the way then."

0o0o0

It had been late morning by the time Tseng and Reno had arrived at the Shinra building, and it was a good few hours later when they finally got back outside. The most annoying this was that they were still no step closer to finding a suspect. All of the security personnel had an alibi, but more importantly, no motive whatsoever. They had even expanded their investigation to the heads of several other important departments, but again there had been no one who would have wanted Sephiroth dead.

Tseng had also found no leads in Sephiroth's office. There wasn't much to investigate in the first place, since the man had kept the place very clean and organised. He'd been able to access the personnel files, but they too held no clue. There wasn't a single employee that was clearly on the wrong foot with the victim.

Reno did not fully agree with that assessment though, "I might have a suspect, boss." He said as soon as they had entered the car.

Tseng rose his eyebrows in interest, "Who?"

"That Genesis guy, yo."

"Genesis?" Tseng wondered as he thought it over, "And what would have been his motive?"

"Unrequited love." Reno revealed with a smug grin, "You heard how Zack mentioned the two were close, but also how Sephiroth wasn't exactly the most romantic guy around. I'd say Genesis had feelings for Sephiroth, revealed those feelings, was rejected, and killed the man in a fit of impassioned rage."

"That is a possible conclusion, but how do you explain his reaction upon hearing the news this morning?" Tseng questioned.

Reno shrugged, "Heard the guy likes drama, yo. Perhaps he's just a good actor."

"Perhaps." Tseng mused, "It's a bit of a stretch though. One can only fake grief so well, and to me he seemed genuinely upset."

"Well there's only one way to find out, yo. I got a hold of him later and he told me he was watching the LOVELESS play in Sector 8. We just need to verify if he was actually there."

"All right. I seems that Cissnei has got a lot of alibis to verify. Let's had back to the station and see what more they've managed to find out while we were gone."

"Sounds like a plan, yo."

0o0o0

Tseng had known from the start that Veld was going to be particularly interested in their current case. After all, they had first believed this to be another successful strike by AVALANCHE. What he hadn't expected however, was to see his chief nagging Cissnei in the crime lab.

Normally Veld was the kind of chief who would sit inside of his office barking orders. Though he made sure to stay on top of what his investigators were all doing, he rarely had the opportunity to really get involved with any of the cases. It had always been a bit different with the AVALANCHE case, since president Shinra had personally pressured him into finding out whoever was responsible for the killings. Whenever the chief had received yet another angry call, he would let out his frustration on Tseng, demanding to know everything about the case. But during all that time he had never actually decided to get out of his room and get personally involved.

And yet he was here today. Despite the likely fact that AVALANCHE had nothing to do with this, Veld was there, glancing over Cissnei's shoulder as she was running some tests and bugging the heck out of her.

"Chief." Tseng greeted curtly, much to Cissnei's relief and their boss now finally turned his attention elsewhere.

"Well finally you decide to show up." Veld responded with irritation laced heavily in his tone, "Report."

"Sir, Reno and I have examined the scene of the crime and went to talk to the victim's colleagues in search of any suspects."

"Well? Have you found out anything useful?"

"We have a lot of alibis that need to be checked, but other than that we've found no lead yet. I was hoping the crime lab would have some more clues."

"So, in other words, you've spent a good few hours finding nothing." Veld accused with a growl, "You had better hope that you find some leads soon Tseng. President Shinra called me and he was not pleased when he heard that it's unlikely that AVALANCHE is involved in this. His company has already suffered a significant blow when the press found out about Sephiroth's death. If you cannot find out what bastard had the guts and the skill to kill Shinra's finest, then it's your ass that's on the line."

"I understand Veld."

"You'd better. I'm starting to feel that it was wrong to put you on such a sensitive case in the first place despite you being my finest detective. Please do not disappoint me any further."

And with those words he turned on his heel and walked away. Tseng, Reno and Cissnei too watched him go. The latter two seemed quite shocked at what had just happened before them. They both held Tseng in high regard for his investigative skills, and to hear him basically be called incompetent by their chief was quite a surprise to them.

On the outside Tseng seemed unfazed by the reprimand he had just received, but on the inside he was seething. He clenched his jaw and was only just able to keep his hands from curling into fists. Though he had hoped to have solved the AVALANCHE case long ago, it wasn't really his fault. Whether it was a group or an individual, they clearly knew what they were doing. They didn't leave any clues, and even when they did, they would lead to dead ends. Though they had a clear grudge against Shinra, they didn't voice it in other ways but killing employees and writing slogans on the victim's walls.

Of all people Tseng was probably the only one who could get even remotely close to solving the case, so to be insulted so was a bit of a sore spot for him. Add to that that this case was probably not even related, and it felt like Veld had just rubbed salt into the wounds. He shook the feeling off however. He had a case to solve, and would spend all of his efforts in finding whoever was responsible.

"Cissnei." He nearly barked, "What have you found out so far?"

Cissnei was a bit taken aback by his tone, but understood and quickly turned to give him her report, "There really wasn't much evidence to be found at the crime scene. So far I have found no fingerprints other than from the victim himself. I was hoping to get an imprint of the attacker's shoe, but the victim's face was kicked repeatedly enough to make that impossible. I just started working on examining the victim's clothes, but I'm not finished yet."

"So, is there anything you can tell me?"

She nodded, "Rude managed to find the shell casing. I was able to determine that the victim's chest wound was caused by a standard handgun."

"Standard handgun?" Reno questioned, "Hey boss, isn't that the kind of weapon the security guards at Shinra carry around?"

"It is." Tseng confirmed which made it possible that they might have overlooked something in their assessment of the victim's colleagues after all. After all, getting a gun in Midgar wasn't exactly easy. They were only a few places where they were sold, and they were usually too expensive for people to buy. Add to that that most of the vendors resided in the slums, and created guns out of whatever parts they managed to salvage, finding standard handguns was even more difficult. There were perhaps two shops in the whole of Midgar that sold genuine issues of that type of gun. It made the possibility that perhaps it was a colleague after all that much more likely.

"Have you been able to run an analysis on it?" Tseng continued.

"Rude is working on it. He found the victim's own gun and is checking to see whether that one was used as the murder weapon."

"Good. Make sure he reports the results to me as soon as possible."

0o0o0

After Tseng and Reno had gotten every bit of information Cissnei had to offer, they went to see their resident pathologist. Tseng wanted more details on the victim's death than Cissnei had already provided him. They entered the sterile room located in the basement of the police station. Upon entering Elena was still performing the autopsy on their newest corpse.

"What have you got for us Elena?" Tseng started without announcing that they had arrived first.

The sudden sound made Elena shake up a bit. She quickly turned her head to the newcomers and blushed a bit at them. Reno couldn't help but smirk lightly at the reaction. He knew the girl had had a crush on his boss ever since the first day she started working here a couple months ago. Sadly it was unreciprocated, but that didn't stop her from becoming a slightly nervous mess whenever she talked to him. It was such a sharp contrast from the woman who had been confidently examining the body just a few moments before.

"S-Sir!" She piped up, pulling the facial mask she'd been wearing down to make it easier for her to talk, "I-I'm sorry. I didn't hear you come in."

Tseng shook his head, "Elena you're a good pathologist, but you need to stop being nervous around me. Just give me your report."

"O-Of course sir! I-I'm sorry." She didn't notice how Tseng let out a small sigh of exasperation to which Reno chuckled softly.

"Don't mind him Elena. He's only your boss." Reno couldn't help but tease.

The tease made Elena glare at the redhead in annoyance. It was good for something though, because she grabbed her unfinished report roughly and started doing what Tseng had requested of her, "The victim has suffered a chest wound caused by a bullet and multiple cuts and bruises to his face. In fact, nearly all of his facial bones have either been cracked or broken. But judging from the colouration of the bruises, I was able to determine that the gunshot was the cause of death, and the beating was done after the victim had already died."

Tseng hummed while he pinched his chin in thought. Meanwhile Reno couldn't resist but tease Elena some more, "See? That wasn't that hard now, was it, yo?" Reno said with a grin, impressed by Elena's ability to shove her nervousness aside in order to give a good report.

The blonde shot him another glare but otherwise ignored him. A wise decision considering that Tseng would most likely not have appreciated it.

"Would the injuries to his face have killed him if he wasn't already dead?" Tseng liked to know.

The young pathologist nodded, "Quite likely. It might not have been immediate, but it is unlikely that he would have survived long enough for the paramedics to arrive. In any case the blows would have knocked him unconscious, making it even more likely."

"And are you sure the victim was already dead prior to the beating?"

"Absolutely positive." Elena replied resolutely, "I've analysed the location and depth of the bullet wound. He was hit straight into his heart from a near point blank range, approximately five metres, so he was killed instantly."

Tseng hummed again, thinking about the information he was given. Reno felt that it was time to throw in his two cents, "The killer must be a strong and very angry person to have caused this much damage. I guess that pretty much confirms that he was killed over something personal."

"I agree." Tseng nodded, looking back up to Elena again, "What's the estimated time of death?"

"I'd say he died less than twenty-four hours ago. I have yet to reach a definite conclusion, but I'd say somewhere early last night."

"Thank you Elena. Keep up the good work."

Elena blushed again at the compliment while the two detectives turned around and started walking out of the room. Reno couldn't help but give her a quick salute that was partly thankful and partly mocking before following his boss out of the room. Elena resisted the urge to throw her clipboard at him. For one it wouldn't look very professional, and two it wouldn't have done what she intended it to do because the two had left her lab quite quickly. She settled for taking a deep breath to calm herself down, pushed the facial mask back up over her mouth and nose and continued with her examination of the body.

0o0o0

 **A/N:** So? What do you think? I love reviews, so please leave your thoughts.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Welcome to chapter 2 of Salvation for the Broken Children!

Woah! As I was reading through this chapter just now before posting, I actually added a few bits here and there. It's now over 6000 words long! Happy reading every one :).

 **Warnings:** This chapter may contain triggers if you're sensitive to the subject of this chapter. Reader's discretion is advised when you get to the part where Tseng finds the secret room. There are no other markers in this chapter to indicate the part.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters.

0o0o0

 **Chapter 2**

"So what do we do now boss?" Reno inquired.

They had returned to Tseng's office on the ground floor. Now that most of the preliminary investigation was either done or underway, Tseng always need some time to think at this point. There were several ways to continue with the investigation, but he wanted to take the route that would most likely prove to be the most effective.

"Has Rude gotten back yet?" Tseng asked instead.

Reno shrugged, "Dunno, yo. Want me to go look for him?"

"Yes. He should have the statements of the victim's neighbours. We'll need those before we can plan our next course of action."

"On it boss."

Reno left the office, leaving Tseng alone with his thoughts. Something just didn't feel right about this case. Everything so far led to the conclusion that this was a very personal crime. The killer had gotten a hold of a gun and the crime scene seemed to be clean, which was a clear indication that this was a planned murder. Yet the obvious anger that was let out on Sephiroth's face indicated that the murderer had been severely angry at him, which often led to mistakes being made.

Then there was also the problem of a motive. The only people who could have gotten easy access to the victim's house were a small group. His colleagues certainly had access to a gun, but neither seemed to have any reason to want their boss dead. His only real lead was Genesis. He would have access to the house, to a gun, and he might have had a personal issue with the victim. Yet for some reason it just didn't feel right. Why would Genesis have been so upset upon hearing the news of his death? Was he really that good of an actor to fool Tseng? The latter prided himself for being able to read people well, and it really didn't seem like the man was acting. Checking his alibi was the only way to really find an answer.

But what if the alibis checked out? They would be at a dead end then. Tseng knew he was missing something. His gut had never failed him before, not even with the AVALANCHE case. Even though that one had yet to be solved, he knew he was slowly getting closer, and that it was just a matter of time before they slipped up.

"Here's the reports boss." Reno said upon re-entering the office, waving a small file that was in his hand.

"Let me see them." Tseng replied while extending his hand.

Reno placed the file there and then leaned back to allow his boss the time he needed to go over the reports. He took an unlit cigarette from behind his ear, popped it between his lips and took a lighter out of his pocket to light it. Luckily Tseng didn't mind him smoking in his office. Though his boss was not a smoker himself, he'd rather have the redhead smoke in his office or while on the road than when he was investigating.

While Reno casually enjoyed his smoke, Tseng looked at the file. It contained the photographs shot at the scene of the crime and the preliminary reports. Among them were the statements of Sephiroth's neighbours. They weren't very helpful though. The man had lived in a fancy neighbourhood. There was only one neighbour that could have noticed anything, and she claimed she and her husband had gone out that night. Considering that the victim was killed somewhere last night, it fit the timeline.

More interestingly though, was the report about the bullet Rude'd found. It wasn't a match to the victim's own gun, which he had been expecting. This meant that the killer had brought his own gun to the scene. Finding that gun would mean finding the killer.

"Reno." He caught the attention of his subordinate, "I want you to focus your efforts on Genesis for now. See if his alibi checks out and confiscate his handgun for analysis just to be sure."

Reno nodded, taking a drag and placing this cigarette between his fingers, "And what are you going to do boss?"

"I'm going back to the crime scene." He said, "I have a feeling that we might have missed something there."

"All right." Reno took a final drag before he put out his smoke on the ashtray that was on his boss's desk, "You can count on me, yo. If this guy is guilty I'll find out." He added confidently.

"I know you will." Tseng acknowledged with a nod. The two then left the latter's office to go their separate ways.

0o0o0

It was late afternoon by the time Reno finally tracked Genesis down to his own residence. As soon as he'd received his orders from Tseng he went back to the Shinra Building first, only to hear that his suspect had gone home as soon as he could. After that it took a while to get his address, but he managed to get it in the end, and was now standing on the front porch.

Genesis lived in a decent area. Not as fancy as Sephiroth's, but surely respectable. Then again, he was one of the more highly ranked officers. Reno guessed the pay must have been good.

Deciding not to dawdle any longer, the redhead marched up the few steps leading to the front door and knocked on it. There was silence first, which made Reno wonder whether the man was even at home, or if he might be unwilling to open the door. He raised his hand to knock again, but then heard some shuffling on the other side. Sure enough a haggard looking Genesis opened the door not soon after.

"What do you want?" He said gruffly, obviously not in the mood to talk to his visitor.

Reno didn't let that deter him though, "Mister Rhapsodos, I would like to ask you some more questions about the case. Will you let me in, yo?"

Genesis sighed and Reno could see he was holding back the tears that threatened to fall, "I've already told you all I know. I would appreciate it if you would leave me alone and find the mother fucking bitch who killed Seph."

"Mister Rhapsodos, you are a suspect in our case." Reno said bluntly, observing the reaction he got from the man.

His eyes grew big and his mouth was slightly agape. It was confusing to Reno, since he was pretty satisfied that this man was actually their murderer. He doubted it now though. Judging from Genesis's appearance he had spent quite a few hours grieving over Sephiroth's death. That he could see as a delayed response of intense guilt to the actual murder. But it was the fact that he could only see genuine surprise that threw him off. Genesis couldn't be that good of an actor, could he?

"I did not kill Sephiroth!" Genesis hissed angrily as soon as he had composed himself, "Why would I kill the man that I loved?"

"That's what I'd like to know too yo, but it might be better if we discuss this privately." The redhead gestured towards the interior of the house.

Genesis glared at him then, but eventually gave in and opened the door further to allow Reno to pass. The detective made his way to the living room with Genesis closely behind him. The latter took a seat on his sofa and grabbed onto the glass that was sitting on the coffee table in front of him. Reno didn't need to smell the stuff to know it was some sort of strong alcoholic.

"I told you, I did not kill Sephiroth." Genesis started speaking then, taking a swig of his drink afterwards.

"You said you loved him, yes?"

The man nodded.

"And you were in a relationship with him?"

"If you could call it that." Came the murmured reply.

Reno cocked his head, "Care to elaborate on that, yo?"

Genesis sighed again, "We were…involved yes, but not in the way I would have liked it to be."

Reno crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow in question, "It was one-sided?"

The auburn-haired man shook his head in denial, "No, I do believe he felt something for me. Seph wasn't the type to let simply anyone close, and certainly not like that." A strained smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he reminisced, "I actually hated his guts when I first met him, you know? I thought he was the most arrogant bastard I'd ever met, but as I got to know him I started to see that it was not arrogance, but rather a genuine lack of social skills." He shook his head, draining the glass in his hands before setting it back down on the coffee table, "Once I knew that, I started to see him in a whole different light. Over time I realised that I was falling for him."

"But he didn't really reciprocate your feelings." Reno deduced.

"Yes…no…I don't really know." Genesis hesitated, "He accepted my advances, but never made an effort himself. I don't know whether he just didn't know it was expected of him, or that he just didn't have an interest in me that way."

Reno cocked an eyebrow, "So you were what? Like, friends with benefits or something?"

Genesis shook his head as he lowered it, pressing his palm against his forehead, "Perhaps on the outside, but I wished it to be more." He took a deep breath and lifted his head to face Reno again, "But whatever we were I didn't kill him."

Reno crossed his arms, thinking about what this man had told him along with his growing doubts. It just made no sense to him. He decided he would just have to pressure the man to see whether that would yield any results, "Sounds to me like you do have a motive to, yo."

"What?!" Genesis shot up from the couch, "How do I have a motive? I loved him. I didn't want to see him hurt!"

"But you also wanted him to love you back, yo." Reno pointed out, making Genesis back off a little, "We know that whoever killed Sephiroth must have let him into his house willingly. The autopsy report also revealed that he was shot by a standard handgun. You certainly fit into the small group of people who had the opportunity."

"Opportunity perhaps." Genesis conceded, "But no motive."

"Really now?" Reno smirked, "How about this. You decided to go to his house last evening. He lets you in without a fuss. You try to advance your relationship, but he is oblivious or rejects your advances. You get frustrated, because you're not getting out of it what you need. Somewhere along the way you get into a fight. Feeling sick and tired of the heartbreak you're going through you grab your gun and shoot him. Then you kick his face in because you hate yourself for falling for that pretty face."

"That…" Genesis fervently shook his head, "That's absurd!"

"Is it?" Reno questioned, "Believe me I've heard worse reasons why somebody chose to harm another."

"I didn't kill him!" Genesis pressed desperately, "I wasn't even near him last night. I already told you that I was at the LOVELESS play in Sector 8. You can verify that."

"And I will. But since you're so adamant about not being our killer, then you would not mind me confiscating your gun for our investigation."

Genesis glared at him, and for a moment Reno thought he was going to refuse handing over the weapon. It would be pointless if he was truly innocent, but his current anger and grief might just make him unwilling to just hand it over. If that were the case, the redhead could always come back with a search warrant.

By this point though he truly believed he had it wrong. The man's reactions were just too genuine to be considered fake. The theory hadn't sounded odd to Reno. He was truthful when he said that he'd heard of motives that seemed superficial to practically everybody other than the one who committed the crime. But it just didn't seem like Genesis was the type to do such a thing. He would probably have walked away from the relationship before it would come to that.

After a few moments Genesis finally disengaged his glare. He turned around and walked to the desk that was sitting in a corner of the room. He opened the drawer to take out his handgun. Reno tensed briefly at that moment. It was reflex basically. If he turned out to be wrong and Genesis would decide to point the gun at him he'd better be able to react fast.

Luckily for the redhead the auburn-haired male had no intention of shooting him. He held it in such a way that it was clear and walked back to the investigator, "I'm positive you will find out that this is not the gun that has been used. And you'll find out that my alibi checks out. Now stop bothering me and find the one who killed Sephiroth."

Reno tentatively took the gun and nodded, having every intention to do just that.

0o0o0

By the time Tseng arrived at the crime scene he found it calmed down considerably from this morning. The tape to keep intruders away while the investigation was still running was still there, but otherwise the house was empty. Finally Tseng would be able to do a detailed search of his own. He found that he could investigate better while he was alone, instead of having a lot of people roaming about, taking photographs and collecting the obvious evidence.

He knew that the team was always very thorough in their scouring of whatever crime scene they encountered. It hardly happened that they missed anything. Right now it also wasn't that Tseng thought they had overlooked anything, but he did have a feeling that the answer to solving this case might actually be hidden in this house.

He was standing in the middle of the living room as he looked around. There was blood on the floor where the body had been, but other than that Tseng was struck again by how clean the scene was. Remove the bloodstain and it wouldn't even be a scene of a crime. Everything was clean and in order. Nothing was out of place. Sephiroth was truly killed without being able to react.

But strangely enough that wasn't what drew Tseng back to this place. He had known this since this morning when they'd first arrived here. No, he wasn't going to find any clues by wondering about how clean the scene was. He needed to dig further.

He moved from his position in the living room to the adjoining rooms. Again there wasn't anything out of the ordinary. The kitchen, the study, the bedrooms, the bathroom, all rooms were checked out, but nothing of note could be found. It frustrated Tseng. His gut told him he was missing something and it had never failed him before. His gut also strangely drew him back to the hallway.

The hallway was a fairly long corridor leading from the front door to the living room. It contained everything one would expect. There was a long table along the side near the door with various items on it. Among them were a few bits of mail and a small bowl which had contained the man's keys before they had been confiscated. It didn't contain anything out of the ordinary otherwise. Sephiroth obviously kept his place tidy, since the table was devoid of any real clutter.

So why then, was Tseng drawn to this part of the house? It didn't make sense, since the hallway wasn't any different in appearance from the other rooms. Except for…

Tseng's eyes grew has he realised something. Where was the basement? He knew for certain these kinds of houses had one. Knowing what he did about architecture, there should be a doorway leading down at the end of the hallway. His eyes drew to the spot the door should have been, but instead of that there was a closet. He presumed it to be a place for coats to be hung up. Judging from the rest of the house Sephiroth wasn't the type of man to use an ordinary coat rack which could be cluttered with coats. A closet to store them in made much more sense, hence why he didn't think twice about it before now.

He tentatively walked towards the closet. He ran his hands over its smooth surface as if that would give him some kind of clue. He noticed the key that was in one of the knobs then. He briefly thought how it was odd that a place to store coats in had an actual lock. He shrugged it off though and turned the key in order to open the door, seeing that it was indeed being used a place to store coats and jackets. He pushed those to the side and felt for the back wall. He felt nothing though, but there was something a little bit off. Now that it was open the closet seemed to be less deep than the outside made it seem to be. And after a quick check Tseng could confirm that particular observation. He was growing excited. He was definitely on to something now. Somewhere behind this closet was most likely a secret door leading to the basement, and Tseng dreaded to think why the man would want it concealed.

He continued his investigation of the closet. Searching and feeling around for any hidden switches or locks, but didn't find any. Raising his eyebrows in slight confusion, he closed the door and took a better look at the outside. There was nothing hidden on its sides, he couldn't get around the back, and even the front held nothing special. It was just a closet door with a lock and key in the knob.

It was that last observation that made Tseng frown again. The closet had two doors, which wasn't odd. However, the fact that both knobs had a keyhole was. He didn't have to use the key in both knobs to open both doors. So why then did both knobs have a keyhole?

He was getting so close to the answer that Tseng could practically feel it. He took the key from the knob it was in and tried to use it on the other knob. With a frown he realised that it didn't fit. Now this was starting to make even less sense. Did it need another key perhaps? That was the most logical explanation. He suddenly didn't like it that the keys that had been found in the hallway had been confiscated. One of them might have been the one to fit this other knob. There was no other option than to get back to the department and retrieve them.

For some reason however, Tseng didn't think that was where the missing key was. It was becoming increasingly obvious to him that their victim was trying to hide something here. This contraption just seemed too elaborated to have the answer be hanging on that keychain. He decided to continue exploring before he would take that consideration more seriously.

He took the key in his hand, turning it over a couple times as he studied it. It looked to be a normal key; one with a thin bar with a small head at the end and a circular handle. He also took a look at the keyholes themselves. He could now clearly see that the two were different. He almost wished Cissnei was here with him. She was something of an expert on locks and could tell what kind of key would fit what lock by just looking at it.

Tseng nearly face palmed then. Without hesitation he took out his phone and took pictures of the two locks and the key. He sent them both to Cissnei before calling her right afterwards.

"What is it boss?" She asked as she picked up the phone after the first ring.

"I just sent you some pictures of two locks and a key. Did you get them?"

"One moment boss." She replied. Tseng could hear her type on the other end of the line while she downloaded the pictures from the email, "Got them." She said after a while.

"I found the key in the first lock, but want to know what kind of key would fit the second one." Tseng told her, hoping that she could help him.

Cissnei hummed as she took a closer look, "Well, the first lock is pretty standard, but the second lock certainly doesn't seem to be. It almost more like it's a coin slot than an actual keyhole."

"A coin slot?"

"That's the best way I can put it boss. I'd say the key you are looking for has the shape of a coin; flat with a round head, like the handle of the key you've got there."

Tseng looked back at the key in his hand. Was it really that simple? He turned his attention back to the phone then, "Thanks Cissnei. Tell me if you find anything else that's significant."

"Of course boss." She confirmed before ending the call.

Tseng pocketed his phone and prepared himself to try out his suspicion. He turned the key around, and pushed it into the keyhole. With a slight feeling of elation he realised that it was a perfect fit. He carefully turned the key then and heard a distinct click of something opening up. He carefully opened the door of the closet back open then. With satisfaction he saw that a doorway had now appeared at the back to the closet. He stepped up and walked right in, following the lightly illuminated steps down into the basement.

Contrary to how they were often displayed in films, these steps weren't creaky and nearly buckling under the man's weight. They were steady and covered by soft carpet, allowing Tseng to descent with relatively little noise. Once he reached the bottom step he was faced with another door. It wasn't locked, but Tseng could immediately tell that it was no ordinary door. It was much thicker and heavier, and it took him a little bit more strength to push it open. When he had, he allowed the light from the stairway to show him the light switch that was on the wall next to him. He hit it and the room was immediately washed in gentle yellow light.

What Tseng saw actually made him gasp. The floor was covered by the same red carpet that covered the stairs, though the floor itself was slightly lower. The walls were covered by pointed structures that had also been painted red, though in a lighter hue. Other than that there was little furniture in the room. Directly to Tseng's left was a wooden desk with a chair. On the same side but at the far corner was a double bed, neatly made with deep-red silk sheets. There were handcuffs chained to the headboard. The right side of the room was filled with several cabinets. For several of them the doors were partly made of glass, and Tseng could see their contents. What he saw disturbed him. Displayed before him was a wide range of sex toys, including BDSM equipment.

Partly with fascination, partly with horror, Tseng moved into the room to examine it further. He noticed how there were no windows. The door had also automatically moved back to close itself. That was a weird particular sensation. It felt as if everything around him was slightly muted. He could hear himself walk around, and hum quietly to himself, but it sounded as if he was listening through a filter. He then understood what the carpet and the pointed structures were used for. His suspicions were confirmed when he noticed that the padding on the wall was made of Styrofoam. He knew that the carpet and Styrofoam made it harder for sound to reflect, reducing echo and making the room sound proof. It wasn't that hard to guess why it was made that way.

Tseng immediately revised his theory on this case. It was becoming fairly obvious that Sephiroth had some dark obsession, and it was quite likely that their killer was one of his victims. But who were his victims? And what kind of atrocities had he done? Those questions and a lot of others were roaming through his head. He decided to look for more clues.

His search was quite short lived. His first place to check was the desk in the corner near the door. Upon opening the drawers he found several interesting items. The first drawer held two cameras, one photo and one video. In the second drawer he found the necessary fluids and equipment for developing photographs. But it was the third and last drawer that held the most interesting item.

On the outside it was just an ordinary binder which had been filled up with quite a few sheets of paper. It wasn't overly full, but rather decently filled up. What Tseng saw on the inside though, made him pale slightly.

They were pictures mostly. Hundreds of pictures. And on them were children.

While leafing through the binder Tseng felt disgust rise within him. These children all seemed to be in their early to mid teens. And they were all naked, often bound to a chair or to the bed. On some pictures the children were either sleeping or unconscious; on others they were awake but they always had a fearful expression on their faces; on yet others they were involved in some kind of sexual act.

At some point Tseng actually had to close the binder and set it back on the table. He was used to seeing corpses all day long, and he'd seen quite a few cases involving rape and abuse. It never got to him. It was part of what made him such a good detective. But this…this somehow got to him. Perhaps it was the massive scale upon which this man had been able to operate, or the obvious effort he'd taken to make sure his dark activities remained undiscovered. Who knew? But at least Tseng now knew in what direction they should look. He was convinced that one of these children was their murderer.

However, he wasn't so sure whether he really wanted to find out who it was. He was having a personal moral debate in which he weighed the murder to systematic child abuse. It all honesty the latter weighed more heavily. Still, he couldn't forget that a crime was a crime, and that it was his responsibility as an investigator to solve it. Whether he sympathised with the criminal was irrelevant.

Keeping that final thought firmly in the forefront of his mind, Tseng emotionally detached himself from his discovery. He closed the binder for now and continued investigating the room. There was little else to be found, though there was one other discovery that he made. Besides the cabinets with the toys, there was also one that was filled to the brim with DVDs.

Tseng guessed there to be at least one for every victim in the binder. He took a look at a few of them to see whether they held any clues as to the children's identities. Sadly, none of them did. They were all titled, but none of them held a name. Instead the titles indicated what was on it. In particular what kind of sexual act could be viewed on it.

He knew he wasn't able to retrieve all the DVDs right now with the amount that was displayed before him. So instead he decided to take along two of them, along with the binder, and leave the rest. They would still be here if they needed them somewhere along the investigation.

With his evidence in tow, and his gut feeling satisfied, Tseng left the room and the house behind him, and returned to the office.

0o0o0

"What have you got for me now boss?" Cissnei asked in curiosity when Tseng had returned to the lab.

He held up the binder he had found, "I want you to start analysing this."

Cissnei reached out to take it from him, but he moved it away from her before she could. She retracted her hand with a slightly confused look on her face, silently asking the man to explain himself.

"I want to warn you before opening this binder Cissnei." He said softly, "What's in here isn't pretty, and might upset you."

Cissnei swallowed thickly then. She asked herself whether she wanted to know what the binder held in that case. She could be a bit sensitive - of that she was aware – but Tseng had never actively kept stuff away from her. When she'd first started working here some of the things she saw had upset her. Tseng had always been the one to talk to whenever it really bothered her. He would provide a kind and patient listener to her emotional outburst. Afterwards he would place a gentle hand on her shoulder, telling her she was doing a great job and that it was okay to be upset. It was better to get it out of her system that way rather than to push it all away.

In a way Tseng knew her better than many of the others working for the MPD. If he anticipated her being bothered by certain evidence she trusted in his judgement. But for him to warn her of it, to see the man she looked up to himself being uncomfortable, was disconcerting to say the least.

Still, she nodded with surety and held out her hand again to take the binder. This time Tseng relinquished it. Taking a deep breath, she opened it to look at what was inside. After a few moments of flipping through it, she had paled considerably.

"I need you to see whether you can find out how old these pictures are, and whether you can identify those who are on it." Tseng said.

Cissnei closed her eyes and firmly shut the binder. She then turned her head to face her boss again and reopened her eyes, "Did our vic do this?" She asked softly.

"Yes." Tseng confirmed simply, "And I believe our killer is one of those people."

She nodded in understanding. She then straightened herself en steeled her expression, "I will do my best boss." She said firmly.

"Of that I have no doubt Cissnei. Call me when you find anything." He reassured her before leaving her to do her job.

He looked at his watch as he walked down the hallway to his office, noticing that it was nearing the end of his shift. There was also nothing much he could do by this point. He needed to wait for Cissnei to finish her analyses so they could get some more leads. He could technically go ahead and view the DVDs he'd taken along, but felt that it might be better to leave that until tomorrow, since he was sure he would have trouble sleeping if he viewed them right now otherwise. He might as well go home to get some rest, since he had no doubt he might be getting little later on during this investigation.

However, upon entering his office he could see that he had a guest. Veld was leaning against Tseng's desk with his arms crossed and tapping his fingers impatiently.

"So you finally decide to come back to your office." He snapped, moving to stand up straight and face his subordinate properly.

"I was working on the investigation." Tseng replied calmly.

"By harassing one of the other important men within Shinra and placing false accusations on him?"

Tseng frowned in slight confusion. Though he did get that his chief was most likely referring to Reno's interrogation of Genesis, he failed to see how he was in the wrong here, "Genesis Rhapsodos is a viable suspect in this case. It would have been wrong not to investigate him."

Veld glared and grabbed a report that was sitting on Tseng's desk en pushed it into the detective's face, "This report clearly states that Genesis's alibi checks out. If you had bothered to wait for just one hour you would have known he was not your man." He slammed the paper back down then and took a few steps to advance on Tseng, making the latter having to look up slightly so as to properly face his chief, "You acted presumptuous Tseng, and in this case I cannot allow that to happen."

Tseng, despite having to look up, was not intimidated however, "You wanted this case solved as soon as possible. There was good reason to believe Genesis could have been involved. If that had been the case you would have probably been scolding me for not having gone after the man as soon as I could." He argued back, crossing his arms as he did so.

There was a moment of tense silence between the two. It wasn't often Tseng talked back to Veld like this, but whenever he did he knew he was in the right. He also knew Veld would listen to reason despite him being emotionally influenced by the sensitivity of this particular case. That was also exactly what the latter was processing right now. He knew Tseng was right, but the stress caused him to blow off some steam somewhere. In that sense Tseng really was the best man to serve directly under him. He was the only one who could take a hit like that and give one back in return.

So, after that moment of silence, Veld eventually backed up slightly and didn't argue back. He instead changed the subject, "What have you found out so far?"

"While Reno went out to interrogate Genesis, I went back to the crime scene to see if I could find something that had been missed. I came upon a rather interesting discovery."

Veld's eyes grew in interest, "And what is that?"

Though he wasn't really comfortable with divulging what he'd found inside that house with his chief, Tseng knew that he couldn't lie either, "A secret basement, hiding evidence of Sephiroth's sexual abuse of a substantial amount of children."

Veld's eyes grew even wider at that revelation, "Sexual abuse? Are you certain?"

"Yes." Tseng confirmed firmly, and continued to provide a brief but complete report of what he'd found in that basement, including showing him the two DVDs he'd taken along, "I'm having Cissnei analysing the binder now, and will view these videos tomorrow myself. I'm certain one of those people is our killer." He concluded.

The chief nodded, though his face was grim. He took a step back towards Tseng again and spoke to him in a low voice, "Make sure this information will not leak to the press. You need to find the one responsible for his murder and you need to do it discretely. Shinra will not be happy if the world finds out that one of their top men turns out to be a child molester."

"You want to cover this up?" Tseng challenged back.

"I _need_ to cover this up." Veld corrected him, "It _cannot_ be known to the people what kind of person the most iconic man in history actually was before his death. It would ruin Shinra, and the president will take his anger out on us. He'll have my hide as well as yours and the rest of the MPD if this news goes public. Do I make myself clear Tseng?"

Though he had difficulty in doing so, Tseng nodded. He understood his boss's reasons, even if his own moral compass refused to go along with it. It wouldn't be the first time he would have to disregard it though. Some things were best left unsaid, and it was clear that this was one of those things.

0o0o0

 **A/N:** Professor Layton ftw? I actually got the idea for the key from one of those games.

Anyway, I hope I did the characters justice. I picture Cissnei as this girl who's totally badass, but as CC taught us, she also has a sensitive side. I also didn't want Tseng to be totally detached from the impact of his discovery, while also be able to stay professional and do his job. And Gen! He was difficult to write, because of the position I put him in. I still wanted to keep him cocky and a bit arrogant while also obviously grieving for Seph's death. And Reno I just love to death. I think he did well.

As always, I'm happy to read your thoughts. Leave a review and I'll always reply back to you. See you next time!


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Welcome to chapter 3 of Salvation for the Broken Children!

I've been quite busy these past few weeks. I have two jobs and for one of them I'm working my ass off in order to get work done others should have done like half a year ago. Though I'll get it done before Christmas, it's taking up quite a bit of time in my evenings, which is the time that I also use for writing. Especially two weeks ago, when I had planned to write chapter 4 of this story. Sadly, I didn't get to finish it yet, while I like to always be ahead by one chapter. It also doesn't help that I'm struggling with the scene a bit. I'll get it done before the next update though. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up.

In the meanwhile, I'll just let you all enjoy this chapter.

 **Warnings:** If you got through chapter 2 alright then you should be fine now. Don't worry about details of what happened to those children, since I don't go into them right now.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters.

0o0o0

 **Chapter 3**

Tseng had trouble sleeping that night. The images of the photographs that he had seen kept flashing through his mind. Those children, they all looked so scared. They must have been scarred for life if they even were alive. From what he'd seen this was much more serious than Sephiroth having been a paedophile. This was probably even much worse than that. But it was also the scope of their victim's operations. The binder contained hundreds of pictures. Though there had been several of each child, Tseng still estimated there to be at least a hundred different children in there. His activities must have been spanned over many years for him to accumulate that many victims without anyone noticing.

And then there were also the video tapes he had yet to view. He didn't look forward to having to do that. It was his job as a police officer to gather evidence, and those videos were most likely to provide even more substantial evidence than the photos could. In all honesty, from what he'd quickly seen Sephiroth wasn't on one of them. Even though the album was found in his home along with the equipment to gather it and not forgetting the secret room, there was still room for manoeuvring. Shinra would utilise every bit of that room in order to save face. It wouldn't matter if everyone in their hearts knew the truth as long as nothing could be proven without question.

So in the end there were two reasons why Tseng wasn't looking forward to viewing those tapes. For one he wouldn't like facing the ordeals these children had to undergo at the hands of this sick man so directly, and for the other he didn't want to have to tip-toe around Veld and Shinra.

And then to think that Sephiroth had been Shinra's poster boy. He was the face of the company, showing perfection in every way. If only people knew what they had been looking up to. And another troubling notion was that Shinra would most certainly not like it if this information was leaked to the public. Due to his position within the company, it would not only reflect badly on Sephiroth himself, but on the company as a whole as well. Veld had been right in that aspect.

That particular thought tore Tseng up. He wanted nothing more than salvation for these broken children. Yet on the other hand his job as a detective required him to solve the crime and arrest the one responsible for it. Shinra would also want that, but without letting the people know the motive behind the murder in the first place. The main problem was that the company was just too powerful to allow for anything to not go like they want it to. And with the president having close ties with his own boss, there was nothing else Tseng could do but find the killer and keep their motive obscure.

It was this conflict of interest that made Tseng unable to sleep.

0o0o0

The next morning Tseng found the desk in his office cluttered with all kinds of reports. But what surprised him was that a very tired looking Cissnei was sitting in his chair with her head resting in her hands. She looked up when her boss entered, looking slightly guilty on top of the tiredness. She quickly stood up from the chair then, as if it had suddenly burned her.

"I-I'm sorry boss." She apologised quickly, "I just came here to bring you my reports, but you weren't here yet, so I decided to wait, and then the chair looked so comfy and I was feeling a little tired and-"

"You're rambling Cissnei." Tseng interrupted her gently.

She looked away then, blushing deeply in shame, "I'm sorry." She mumbled.

Tseng wasn't angry at her however. He had his suspicions about what was going on and really couldn't blame her, "You worked all through the night, haven't you?"

She nodded, though she still didn't look at him, "I went home shortly after you, but then I couldn't sleep. Those pictures…those children…I…and then Veld, he talked to me before I went home."

"I understand Cissnei." He walked up to her then and gently placed his hands on her shoulders, finally making her look up again, "I know exactly how you feel, but I cannot have you overwork yourself over a single case, no matter how much it might affect you emotionally."

"I know."

"Good. Now I want you to take the rest of the day off." Cissnei looked like she wanted to protest then, but Tseng stopped her before she could, "You won't be able to function like this. I don't care what it is that you need to do, but you need to get this out of your system and get some rest. I'll need you when I've gathered more evidence. In the meantime Rude can take over for you."

Cissnei closed her mouth that had still been open and relented with a nod. Her boss was right. He always was and she should be grateful that he wasn't going to send her right back to her work station. She broke free from his gentle hold on her and left his office.

Tseng watched her go with a hint of concern in his expression. He made a mental note to check up on her at the end of the day if he could. Hopefully she would be able to put it aside for now and focus on getting her job done the way it should be done. Though he was pleased that he would have all the reports now instead of having to wait throughout the day, he would rather see it not take such a toll on the girl.

He shook his head and turned his attention back to his desk and the reports on it. Hopefully they would contain something useful that would shed some light on the case and where to start looking. He sat down in his chair and took the first report from the pile. It contained the comparison between the bullet that was used on the victim and the one shot from Genesis's handgun. As expected they were no match, making it definitive that the latter hadn't been the killer.

Most of the other reports were verifications of alibis of Sephiroth's colleagues. There was nothing of note there either. All alibis checked out and no one had any motive. Everyone reported Sephiroth as being a distant man, but at the same time a fair superior. He really wasn't the type to be very social around his co-workers, but you wouldn't have any problems with him if you did your job.

Though there was nothing of note in those reports, Tseng perused them thoroughly in hopes of finding some kind of clue to the man's decrepit activities. But either no one knew about them, or they had very consciously left any piece of evidence out of their statement. Tseng sighed as he closed the final report. He suspected the former to be true actually. He couldn't imagine how anyone would keep this a secret. Besides, there was no reason to believe anyone other than the silver-haired man himself had been involved. Judging from every character description he'd read, his victim had been a very solitary man who would keep such things to himself.

The investigator then turned to the thickest report file on his desk. Besides the tapes it was the final thing he had to review. He was almost reluctant to look at it, since it contained the analysis of the binder that had affected himself and Cissnei so. There was no getting around it though, and it was probably easier than looking at the tapes. Besides, Tseng could almost feel that it held an answer somewhere, or a lead at least. So, he picked it up and started reading it.

He had only just started when the door to his office opened and his red-haired subordinate waltzed inside, "Good morning boss." Reno greeted cheerfully.

"You're late Reno." Tseng commented without looking up.

"Actually, I'm not. You're just very early, yo."

Tseng shot a brief glance at the clock then, seeing that Reno was actually right. He hadn't even really realised that he'd come to the office over an hour earlier because he had become frustrated over not being able to sleep well. He didn't feel like acknowledging that much to Reno though, so he just grunted once and turned his attention back to the report.

It was strange behaviour to Reno. Normally his boss was very perceptive of these kinds of things and objective in examining evidence. But now he seemed preoccupied and emotionally affected. It made the redhead wonder what his superior had actually found. He'd had heard that he had found something that was big, but had as of yet not gotten any details on it.

He decided to ignore Tseng's behaviour for now though, and keep himself focussed on the case, "So what have we got?" He asked as he sauntered over to the desk.

"A very thorough analysis of some evidence I found yesterday." Tseng replied.

He then placed the report back down on his desk so he could explain to Reno what'd he'd found. The redhead blanched as he realised what kind of a man Sephiroth had been.

"Cissnei worked all night to get this done, and came up with some interesting finds." Tseng continued as he gestured towards the folder, "She identified one hundred and fifty-six different children on the pictures, all probably ranging between the ages of thirteen and eighteen at the time the pictures were taken. She's also been able to discover on what dates some of these pictures were taken. According to her they were all in order, and the oldest one is fourteen years old."

"Fourteen?" Reno echoed while shaking his head, "You mean to tell me that this guy has been abusing over ten teenagers a year for fourteen years without anyone noticing?"

"Correct." Tseng acknowledged with a nod.

"That's sick, yo."

"It is."

"How though? How did no one ever notice anything?"

"Sephiroth was meticulous." Tseng concluded, "It shows from what I've seen in his office, house and from what other people have told us about him. He had a special secret room in his basement that was made soundproof. After he would get a child inside unnoticed, no one would know any better. Cissnei also looked into it even further. None of these children were reported missing during the time they were abused. This means that they were probably not held for very long."

"But why would none of these children step up and tell someone what happened?" Reno wondered in confusion.

Tseng shook his head, "There's something about victims of abuse that makes it very difficult for them to talk about their traumatic experience. They often feel intense shame and are easily pressured into not telling anyone anything by their assailant. Fear mixed with shame go hand in hand and, especially with teenagers, makes them suffer in silence. My best guess is that Sephiroth exploited that fact."

"That's awful, yo. I can't imagine what they are going through." He raked a hand through his long red hair until reaching the headband at the nape of his neck. He felt like lighting a cigarette, but resisted, "But do we have any idea as to who these people are?"

"Not yet. Since they were never reported missing or anything, and Sephiroth didn't file their names." Tseng sighed in frustration then, "Normally I would release some of these pictures to the press and attempt to track these people down that way, but that would mean having to explain the situation to them as well. Veld doesn't want this to leak for fear of what Shinra would do. So we're stuck."

Reno hummed and thought about it. He didn't need to ask any more explanation about why they couldn't take that particular course of action. He understood all too well the implications of letting the public know what kind of man Sephiroth had been. He glanced at the report on his boss's desk then, which was still open. His eyes widened in surprise then and he walked towards it to take a closer look.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." He mumbled.

"What is it Reno?" Tseng asked with interest.

The redhead pointed to the picture that was attached to the report, "I know this girl. I mean, she's obviously older now, but I'm sure it's her."

"Who is she then?"

"Her name is Tifa Lockheart. She runs a bar called Seventh Heaven in Sector 7 slums."

Tseng hummed and nodded. Even if it was by sheer coincidence that Reno recognised this girl, it also provided him with his first lead. Before he knew it he was standing up and leaving his office with Reno in tow. Hopefully the woman could and would provide them with some more information that would lead them in the right direction.

Moreover, it gave him an excuse to leaves the tapes alone for a little while longer.

0o0o0

Seventh Heaven wasn't open yet when the two investigators arrived there. This wasn't odd considering it was run by just one person and it was open throughout the evening and part of the night. At the same time this also gave them the perfect opportunity to talk to its owner without any problems.

"Boss," Reno started as they both stepped out of the car. He threw away the bud of the cigarette he'd lit up after all before continuing, "You might want to let me handle this, yo."

Tseng looked at his subordinate, trying to read his expression. Ever since the redhead had recognised the girl from the photographs he had been slightly uneasy. He hadn't expected that from him if he just knew her because he frequented this place. Though he was certain Reno wasn't seeing anyone, he couldn't help but get a funny feeling about this. Still he nodded his consent. Considering the situation, Reno perhaps was the best person to take the lead right now. After all, he knew the victim and might be able to make her more comfortable because of that.

They both walked up to the door and Reno knocked on it. They could hear some sounds coming from inside and waited. It took a little while, but eventually the door was unlocked and they stood face to face with a young woman. It was without a doubt it was the same one from the pictures. Though she had obviously aged since the photos were taken, she also still looked relatively the same. Her dark brown hair was still long, and her bordeaux-red eyes, though shimmering in fear on the picture and in confusion right now, were unmistakably the same.

"Reno?" She asked in confusion, "You know that I'm closed right now."

"I do Tifa, but I'm not here for a drink." Reno said seriously. He then took his badge from his pocket and showed it to her, "I work for the MPD. This is my colleague Tseng. We were wondering if we could ask you some questions."

They could see the young woman pale slightly and tremble a bit. Nevertheless she pulled the door open further and motioned for them to come on in. There was a tense silence in the moments following after it. Tifa first motioned for them to take a seat while she closed the door. She then walked over to the bar to pour herself a glass of water from the tap. She nearly spilled some of it with the way her hands were trembling.

Both men felt for the girl, even though they didn't show any outward signs of it. Since Reno was going to take the lead Tseng took this opportunity to observe Tifa's reactions and movement. He quickly arrived to the conclusion that there was a very low probability of her being the killer. Her mannerisms didn't speak of someone with a guilty conscience, but rather someone who had witnessed something traumatic. Still, he couldn't afford to not consider her, so he continued to observe her while she moved to join them at their table and sat down stiffly.

"I was expecting you to show up eventually. This is about Sephiroth, isn't it?" She said as calmly as she could.

"We found some pictures at his house." Reno started while slowly pushing one of Tifa's towards her.

Tifa gasped as he pulled it towards her. She clasped a hand in front of her mouth while tears sprung into her eyes. Out of all the pictures Reno could have shown her, it was one of the least bad. Still this was only relative all things considered.

"Are you alright?" Reno asked with concern as he handed her a tissue, which she gratefully took.

"I'm fine." She said as she dapped at her eyes and sniffed, "I just got overwhelmed a bit." She blew her nose then and took another shaking sip of water before letting out a deep sigh. She picked up the picture and started to speak, "This was made nine years ago. For nine years this man has haunted my dreams. And now he's gone. Just like that."

"Could you tell us what happened?"

The brunette put the picture back down and nodded, "I've been waiting for so long for this. And yet right now I feel like I don't even know where to start."

"Why not start with how you met him?" Reno suggested.

"I didn't even really know him. I just knew him from what I'd read in magazines and papers. So I never expected to actually see him in real life." She took another sip of water before she continued, "One day after school I literally bumped into him. I was awestruck once I realised just who I'd bumped into, especially when he started to apologise and helped me stand back up. He was acting so kind and nice." She let out a weird laugh then, and commented, "It's so ironic right? That parents always tell you not to go along with strangers. But the moment Sephiroth offered me a drink at his house in apology I went straight along with him."

"Why did you?" Reno asked.

Tifa shrugged, "I don't really know. Maybe I was just so awestruck of meeting Sephiroth of all people that I couldn't think clearly. I also didn't expect a man who was under such public scrutiny to have anything other than good intentions. After all, he _was_ the face of Shinra, the most powerful company in the entire world. What could possibly be wrong about him inviting a fourteen-year-old girl to his place?"

"So you went with him. What happened next?"

"He offered me the drink he'd promised. I never noticed a thing, but before I knew it I was getting dizzy and blacked out. When I woke up again I was…" She paused for a moment there while she gathered the courage to finish the sentence, "…I was tied naked to a chair in some weird room. Sephiroth was there as well, taking pictures of me, telling me how beautiful I looked. After that…well…I'd say the pictures are clear about what happened."

"He raped you." Reno concluded for her, hoping that just bluntly stating it like this would somehow make it easier for her.

And it was, because now she wouldn't have to use that one difficult word. All she had to do was nod, though she did add, "Several times and in multiple ways."

"Gaia." Reno swore under his breath. For a moment Tseng thought he might have to take over, but his subordinate quickly recomposed himself, "How did you get out?"

"He let me go." Tifa replied simply, "I'm not really sure for how long I've been there, but it wasn't more than a couple of hours. I had blacked out again eventually, and when I woke up the second time I was lying on his coach, fully dressed again. He told me to go home."

"He couldn't afford to keep you for much longer." Tseng intervened, drawing the attention of both others to him so he could elaborate, "You probably would have been reported missing by your parents if he kept you for too long. Considering the scale on which he worked, he couldn't afford somebody noticing teenagers gone missing."

Reno nodded in understanding and turned his attention back to Tifa, "What I don't understand though, is why you'd never told anyone?"

"He threatened me just before he let me go." She revealed with a tremble, "He told me that I had just blacked out and that it had all just been a dream, and that I shouldn't tell anyone. He told me he'd find me and take me back to that horrible room." The tremble had evolved into visible shaking by then, "I…I was so scared…all I wanted was to get out of there, away from him. So I just nodded and left."

"And you never told anyone?"

"Not really." Tifa confirmed, "I just tried to convince myself that it was like Sephiroth had said – that it had all been just a dream. I could fool myself a little bit that way, but I wasn't able to hide that something had happened from my parents though. They tried to get me to tell them, but I never did. They eventually sent me to a therapist. She was specialised in teenage rape victims and helped me deal with what happened to me, even though I never told her any of the real details."

"Did it help you any?"

Tifa nodded, "Yes. Though I never became the same girl I was back then, I was able to move on from it eventually and work on a better future. I was also able to track down other victims, and we've been supporting one another a lot."

Reno frowned in surprise then, "Wait. Other victims? How were you able to track them down?"

"Well, actually, as part of my therapy I had a few group sessions. There was one other girl who did say she was abused by him. I talked to her afterwards and that's how it got started. Together with her and Lucrecia we've been able to get a small group going."

"Lucrecia? Who's that?"

"Oh! I'm sorry. That's the name of my therapist. Doctor Lucrecia Crescent."

"Right." Reno commented.

He then looked towards his boss, seeing him nod. It was a silent indication that they had gotten what they came for. He could wrap it up now. Though Reno couldn't help but feel that the therapist's surname sounded familiar, he instead nodded back to his boss and turned his attention back to the young woman again.

"We would like to come into contact with those other victims for our investigation." He said.

"Of course." Tifa agreed with a nod, "I can give you their names and addresses."

She stood up then, walking to an adjacent room to get something. Though her shaking had somewhat subsided, it was still clear that she was trying to keep herself from breaking down. Tseng couldn't help but admire her slightly. He had by that point concluded that she was not their murderer. She reacted like he had expected her to and she would most likely not have revealed as much as she did if she was guilty.

They were lucky Reno had recognised her though. Even though they had no new suspect yet, they were at least getting closer into coming into contact with some of these victims. There was a chance that their killer was among the little group Tifa had gathered. It was a starting point at least.

Both Tseng and Reno stood up to leave once the brunette had offered them a small address book. But just before they actually left Reno turned his attention back to her again, looking a little guilty. Without any prompting, he spoke up.

"Hey Tifa. I know I've been shamelessly flirting with you a lot. I hope it didn't make you feel uncomfortable."

Tifa shot him a small smile and squeezed his arm in reassurance, "It's all right Reno. But thank you for your concern anyway. I appreciate it."

Reno nodded and turned to leave, leaving Tseng to follow behind him. Besides the address book they had gained, the investigator couldn't help but think back on his earlier observation of his subordinate. He now understood why Reno had looked so nervous before. Now that he knew what the girl had gone through, he likely felt that he might have unwittingly caused some bad memories for her to resurface. Luckily for him that wasn't the case though.

Tseng was glad for it. He needed Reno to keep on top of his game in order to solve their case. Cissnei had already been forced to take a break, and he couldn't afford to lose another employee while working on this case. Though he was still torn over whether or not he actually wanted to find the killer, he was also curious as to what kind of person had gathered the courage to do it, and how this person had been able to do so.

0o0o0

The small address book turned out to be a big help. There were about twenty victims noted down in there. It was only a chunk of the entire trail of victims Sephiroth had left in his wake over the years, but it was surely better than nothing.

Both investigators had first gone back to the office so they could match the names to the photos they had. Despite Cissnei not being there Rude managed to get the work done fairly quickly with Reno's help. After just a few hours they had matched all of the victims, and thanks to Cissnei's earlier work, they could also pin down when these children were approximately victimised.

It turned out that some of the victims dated back to the time Tifa was abused, while others were more recent. There was one in particular that stuck out for being one of the most recent ones. It was a young girl named Yuffie Kisaragi. Tseng felt his stomach twist slightly when Reno handed him the photograph. The girl on the picture couldn't be any older than sixteen, but that wasn't what hit him. What was, was that he could easily tell that this girl came from Wutai.

Wutai was an island to the far west of the world. The people there were isolated and traditional. Up to this day they were one of the few people to resist Shinra in their expansion of providing Mako energy to the world. Tensions had risen to the point where there were rumours of a war coming up. The thing that made it so emotional, nearly personal even, to Tseng however was that he originally came from that country too.

Though it had been a long time since he'd left his home country, and had learned to accept views and lifestyles other than his own, he still couldn't help but feel a sense of loyalty to his people. Knowing now that Sephiroth had hurt a Wutaian girl caused a new surge of disgust for the man to well up.

"Isn't Kisaragi the name of the Wutaian ambassador?" Reno broke through his thoughts.

Tseng's eyes widened briefly. The redhead was right. He hadn't realised it immediately upon learning the name. His thoughts had been clouded by his earlier feelings of patronage towards his countrymen. He internally scolded himself for such oversight. This wasn't like him at all. Whether the victim hailed from Wutai, Midgar, Mideel or whatever country or city shouldn't matter. What mattered was that he approached each case objectively, and up until now he had always been able to do so. Yet this case had apparently rattled him so that he had strayed. He resolved to change that from this moment onwards.

"It is." He confirmed with a nod, "But don't let that change how you would approach this investigation Reno."

"Don't worry, boss. I'll keep it cool, yo. But what do you wanna do now?"

"Since we believe the killer to be one of Sephiroth's earlier victims, I'd say we should start investigating those we've uncovered for now."

"Sounds good, yo." Reno agreed, "Where do you wanna start?"

Tseng looked back at the picture of the Wutaian girl he was still holding in his hand. It was also a bit for selfish reasons he wanted to seek her out, but at least he had a good excuse. Besides, they needed to start somewhere, so why not with her.

"Let's start with his most recent victims first."

Reno nodded in agreement, thinking nothing special of his boss's decision and following him out of the office.

0o0o0

 **A/N:** And the hunt for trying to find the murderer is on! Next up is their investigation of Yuffie. Let's see if our favourite ninja makes for a possible killer.

I also wanted to have a bit of character development for Tseng. It just didn't feel right to have him be the stoic professional all the time. I hope you all liked it, as well as Cissnei getting a bit overwhelmed. Oh and Reno…*sigh*…he actually has a sense of decency though I like him as a ladies man.

Until next time!


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Welcome to chapter 4 of Salvation for the Broken Children!

Sadly, I haven't been able to catch up fully with my writing. Chapter 5 is only just under halfway done while I prefer to be one chapter ahead. I should still be fine with getting it done in two weeks though, so I shouldn't have to miss any updates.

Also, I've been looking at my plot outline a bit and figured out how many more chapters I'm going to need. As it stand right now chapter 7 will probably be the last chapter.

That's it for now. Also, an early Merry Christmas! I hope your days will be filled with family, friends and peace.

 **Warnings:** If you got through chapter 2 alright then you should be fine now. Don't worry about details of what happened to those children, since I don't go into them.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters.

0o0o0

 **Chapter 4**

It was well into the afternoon when Tseng and Reno reached their first destination. This was where the Wutaian girl they were going to investigate first was living. It was a decently sized home in an average neighbourhood. It wasn't a poor area, but certainly not a rich one as well. Godo Kisaragi might be the ambassador of Wutai, it didn't mean that he was rich or anything. More like middle class, with the neighbourhood consisting out of rows of modern family homes and a few apartment buildings in the distance; suited for small to slightly larger families.

At least Tseng was glad to see that his countrymen were apparently doing well for themselves, despite being outsiders. Not all people from Midgar took well to foreigners, especially if they hailed from distant lands that didn't utilise Mako energy. It showed how much of a commodity the energy source had become, despite the numerous resistance groups that had stood up in response.

As both investigators stood in front of the door, Tseng gave a firm knock on it. They heard some noises coming from the inside, and just a few moments later a man opened up the door.

"Can I help you?" The man asked with a heavy accent and frown, obviously not expecting visitors.

"I am detective Tseng from the MPD and this is my colleague Reno." Tseng introduced them as they flashed their badges, "Are you Godo Kisaragi?"

"Yes. What do you want?" The man confirmed, but kept up his guard.

"We are investigating the death of Sephiroth. We would like to ask you some questions. May we come in?"

Mister Kisaragi continued to look at both investigators sceptically. He seemed to take note that Tseng also hailed from Wutai, which was probably the reason why he hadn't closed the door on them yet. Still, it was very clear that he didn't want both investigators here. Whether it was because he was confused about why they had sought him out specifically, or because he was guilty in some way, wasn't clear.

"Waarom zijn jullie dan hier? Ik heb daar niets mee te maken." He eventually asked in a language that Reno didn't understand, though Tseng recognised as his native tongue.

Tseng shook his head in disapproval. By switching to Wutainese Godo had essentially shut Reno out of the conversation. But what was even more difficult for Tseng to handle, was that the man had pretty much wiped away any professional barrier there was between them. Speaking the same language brought them slightly closer on an emotional level, and Tseng had to make sure he wouldn't overstep any boundaries, especially after his internal slip up back at the office.

Still, in order to hopefully appeal to the man's sense of camaraderie and thus make him more compliant, Tseng replied back in the same language, "We hebben bewijs gevonden dat de mogelijke betrokkenheid van uw dochter met het slachtoffer suggereert. We zijn hier enkel om dat uit te zoeken."

"Mijn dochter?" Godo questioned suspiciously, "Wat voor bewijs heb je gevonden?".

"Het is beter om dat binnen te bespreken. De foto's zijn erg schokkend."

"Schokkend?" Mister Kisaragi repeated the last word with puzzlement in his voice.

"Ja." Tseng confirmed in his own language before switching back, "So it's better to continue this conversation inside."

The man regarded the two men for a final time, seeing the serious look on his fellow countryman's face. He relented and opened up the door a little further, allowing the two detectives to come inside. He then gestured for them to sit down at the table.

"Vertel me meer over de foto's waar je het over had." He said, continuing in his own language where Tseng had not.

Tseng shook his head again, "Please sir, though I understand that speaking in our own tongue is easier for you, I must request that you speak Common."

The Wutaian shot Reno another look, thinking that the request was made in his stead. This was true, if only in part. The other reason being that Tseng wanted to stay as professional as he could. There was no way around hiding Sephiroth's activities from this man if they wanted to investigate his daughter. As ambassador he would have the means and the authority to bring this news to the public, which complicated matters a lot. If Tseng wanted to prevent this from happening, he needed to be sharp and not be distracted by feelings of loyalty towards the Wutaian.

Luckily, Godo's interest was piqued, so he complied, "Fine then. Tell me more about these photos you were talking about."

Reno was glad that he had switched between languages. Though he could make up some of the words that had been spoken, he still understood squat of Wutainese. Though it was obvious that Tseng was the one to handle this part of the investigation, he still preferred to actually know what was going on. He hadn't noticed any internal struggle within his boss, indicating that the latter hadn't shown any clear outward signs. Right now he just sat back and let him take the lead.

The tension in the room was palpable, which wasn't odd the Tseng. The Wutaian ambassador probably had to deal with scorn every single day, and now he was being confronted with evidence that tied him with the death of one of Shinra's most influential people. Still, it wasn't really the man himself that was being targeted, but his daughter, and he wanted to know what was going on.

Tseng decided not to delay any longer, and took the photograph of the man's daughter from his pocket and showed it to him, "This is your daughter, Yuffie Kisaragi, right?"

The man gasped and paled as he took the picture from the investigator's hands. Like with Tifa's it was one of the least obscene pictures, but it was still very clear what it meant, "Great Leviathan. So that is why…"

He closed his eyes then while he pushed the picture away. He then took a deep breath as he tried to compose himself. Both investigators allowed him that brief moment of time. It was obvious that he needed it if they wanted to continue with this interrogation properly.

After a few more breaths, he opened his eyes and turned his attention back to the detectives, "Who did this to my daughter?"

"Sephiroth." Tseng admitted truthfully, knowing there was no way getting around it, though he kept the real reason why they were there to himself for now. Keeping Veld's words in mind, it was best to reveal as little as possible.

Godo clenched his fist, "Why? Why would he choose to hurt my daughter? Though not exactly at peace, I thought our countries were on good terms at least."

"Sir, I don't believe Shinra has anything to do with it."

The man shot the investigator a hard look, "Why else would he have targeted my daughter if it wasn't to bring me down?"

Tseng quickly went over his options in his head then. It was clear that he needed to reveal a little bit more to appease his countryman, but he needed to tread carefully, "We found this picture and many others while investigating his home. Sadly you daughter wasn't the only victim, and most of the others weren't connected to anyone of note."

"So what are you saying? That he is a sadistic paedophile acting completely on his own?"

"Yes." Tseng confirmed with a nod.

A silence fell as Godo tried to comprehend what he had just been told. If what the detective said was true, then it was likely that Sephiroth had acted on his own. Shinra would have nothing to do with it. But still, considering the tense relations between him and the company's president, hearing that his most distinguished employee was responsible for such a horrible act only fuelled his distaste.

"Where is your daughter actually, yo?" Reno piped up, having wondered about it from the moment they'd walked in.

Godo lifted his head to regard the redhead, "She's upstairs, but I don't want you talking to her."

The tone that he'd used was much more clipped than the one he used against Tseng. It was obvious that Godo was being very subjective in whom he'd rather talk to, and Reno had to resist the urge to roll his eyes at that.

"She is the one victimised here. I would actually be interested in hearing her story." Tseng stood by his second in command.

"That's not going to happen." He said with a tone of finality.

"And why not?" Tseng challenged.

Godo let out a pent up sigh then and both investigators noticed how his shoulders drooped a little in defeat. He picked up the picture again and looked at it with a sad expression. Though nothing rolled down his cheeks, the tears were glistening in his eyes.

"Yuffie hasn't been the same for the last few months. She used to be such a happy girl, vibrant, full of energy and always ready to defy me in any way possible." He smiled weakly then as he reminisced the good times.

"A daughter of Wutai defying her own father?" Tseng said sceptically with a raised eyebrow.

"It's not what you're thinking." Godo defended his daughter, "She really loves Wutai, and hates any kind of influence Shinra has on it. She felt that I wasn't doing anything to stop it. Then, when I was chosen to be the ambassador, and we moved here to Midgar two years ago, she just feared she couldn't hold on to her origins. She wouldn't look at me for two full weeks, and even after that she was always being difficult."

"You took her away from the home she loved and into what she considered to be enemy territory." Tseng concluded.

"I guess you could see it like that." He sighed and shook his head then, "But it is my responsibility to my people to be here. I also hoped that being here would make her see that some changes are necessary in order to preserve our traditions as well as we can. I think she was starting to see that. Though she still doesn't really like being here, she even made some friends and was doing well. That is, until about four months ago. She suddenly grew very quiet and withdrawn. At first I thought she was just angry at me again, but when she wouldn't even go out with her friends, I knew something had happened. I tried talking to her, but she just kept pushing me away."

A brief silence fell as Godo took another deep breath and continued to fight to hold back his tears. In their culture it was considered an act of weakness if a Wutaian man cried in front of others. Tseng had to praise him for his efforts, though he wouldn't have blamed him or thought it dishonourable if the man had openly cried there and then. After all, having to deal with the knowledge that his own daughter was abused was bound to have any parent reduced to a crying mess. They should anyway.

But even though he could sympathise with his countryman's situation, it didn't stop Tseng from pressing the matter. Yuffie was a victim of Sephiroth and therefore a possible suspect. Only if he could talk to her directly could he judge whether she was capable of taken such an action. Yet Tseng also sensed that the man was not going to be swayed easily. Despite the hardships he had apparently faced with her, it was obvious that he loved his daughter very much. It wasn't strange that he wanted to protect her, but it did make their work harder.

"Het is belangrijk dat we met uw dochter zelf praten." Tseng decided to tell him in their own language, "Het zal goed voor haar zijn om te vertellen wat er is gebeurd."

"Met welk doel? Sephiroth is al dood. Zijn jullie niet op zoek naar zijn moordenaar?" Godo said sceptically.

Godo was clearly a smart man. With his reply he had questioned the reason why the two detectives were here. Sephiroth was already dead, so why would they be here to investigate the abuse?

Tseng quickly racked his brain to find a possible way to avoid revealing their true reason for being here. He had to conclude that it was inevitable though. It was clear from Godo's posture that he already suspected their real reasons, and relied on Tseng's sense of Wutaian honour to be truthful.

"Ze is een verdachte in de zaak."

"Wat?!" Godo stood up angrily, slamming his hand on the table, "Onmogelijk!"

Reno was shocked by the reaction. He hadn't expected it, because he didn't understand what his boss had been telling the man. Though judging from the heated response, he guessed that he now knew his daughter was a potential suspect.

"Pap? Waarom schreeuw je zo?"

The three occupants of the room turned to see a teenage girl standing in the doorway leading from the living room to the hallway with the staircase beyond. She flinched and hid herself behind the wall a bit when she saw that her father wasn't alone.

"Yuffie...het spijt me lieverd." Godo said in a calm and apologetic tone of voice.

"Pap, wat doen die mannen hier?"

Before Godo could answer his daughter, Tseng spoke up, "I am detective Tseng of the MPD and this is my colleague Reno. We are here to investigate the murder of Sephiroth."

Yuffie cringed upon hearing the name. It was clear from her entire posture that she was uncomfortable. But whether it was because of the abuse she'd suffered, or also from guilt was as of yet unclear.

"But why are you here then? What does it have to do with me?" She asked timidly.

"He did something awful to you, didn't he?"

Yuffie cringed even further, tears welling up in her eyes as she was remembering the awful fate that had befallen her.

"That is enough." Godo intervened, walking to stand between his daughter and the investigators, "I told you I do not want you talking to my daughter."

"Dad. It's okay." Yuffie spoke up, moving to stand next to her father, "He-he's gone now. He cannot hurt me anymore."

"Yuffie…" Godo turned to his daughter, hugging her close, "Why did you never tell me?"

"He-he said that i-if I did he would je-jeopardise your position as a-a-ambassador."

"Oh lieverd. I'm so sorry."

"Excuse me." Tseng intervened drawing the attention from both father and daughter, "I apologise for interrupting this moment, but we would really like to know what happened to you Yuffie."

The girl swallowed thickly, looking away as she tightened her hold on her father's shirt. Godo pressed her even closer, sensing his daughter's unease. Also the reason for his earlier outburst came back to mind. He looked at the two detectives and scowled.

"Zie je dan niet dat ze te aangeslagen is om hierover te vertellen? Trouwens, er is geen enkele manier waarop mijn dochter dit gedaan kan hebben."

Reno, who was getting fed up with being on the sideline all this time and having the man switch back and forth between the two languages, finally decided to speak up, "Look, yo, I understand that you want to protect your daughter, but we're only doing our jobs. I'm guessing that you don't believe she is involved, so there's no harm in us talking to her now is there?"

Tseng nearly scolded his subordinate for his words, but held off because it wouldn't look very professional in front of a potential suspect and her protective father. He could also understand the redhead's actions. He wasn't used to keeping silent and inactive for so long. He always did a great job whenever he could actually do something, but didn't have the patience Tseng had when observing people during an interrogation. Taken the additional language barrier into account, it had to be very frustrating for him to the point he just had to intervene.

For a moment it seemed that Godo was going to kick them out of his house because of Reno's bluntness, but it was once again Yuffie who stopped her father, "Dad, he's right. I've got nothing to hide anymore."

"I know this will be difficult for you, but I admire your strength. You are a true daughter of Wutai." Tseng praised her, putting the girl more it ease.

After a brief moment of hesitation, Yuffie started telling her story. It was fairly similar to what Tifa had told them before. Though instead of bumping into her, Sephiroth had actually actively sought her out. He'd told her that he had something for her father and had asked whether she would want to give it to him. Though she didn't really feel like it, she didn't want to do anything that could put her father's position at risk, so agreed. The man had offered her a drink before she left, and she soon found herself in the same position as Tifa had.

She told her story in a monotone voice. She also didn't make any gestures or looked at anyone in the room. She simply couldn't bear it and only managed to get her story out because she wasn't stopping to allow the emotions to get to her.

Tseng and Reno both solemnly listened to it. Both had by now reached the conclusion that there was pretty much no chance this girl had taken such an action. Her honour wouldn't allow her to lie, and even though she caused trouble for her father, it was mostly because she wanted to protect that very same honour as a Wutaian girl.

After Yuffie had finished the emotions finally overwhelmed her. Godo immediately took her back into her arms. The detectives had gotten what they came for though - another testament and yet another possible suspect to cross off their list – so they soon afterwards bid their thanks and farewell.

0o0o0

The remainder of the day was spent with the two detectives tracking down what victims they could from Tifa's list. So far it hadn't led to anything. There wasn't a single victim that stood out in his or her behaviour. They were all traumatised of course, and they all had varying degrees of coping with it. Some were hardly able to talk about it, while others told them their story after a little bit of struggle.

One name that kept popping up though, was Lucrecia's. After Tifa had first mentioned her, Tseng had already planned to pay her a visit at some point during the investigation. The therapist was a bit of a mystery to him. Though she wasn't suspicious per se, the fact that a lot of Sephiroth's victims had found their way to her was at the very least noteworthy.

What made it so interesting was that all of the victims claimed that they had been threatened in any way, shape or form before being allowed to leave after their abuse. This had ensured their silence. For children like Tifa or Yuffie it had been their parents to find her in an act of desperation, as had many other parents. But for others it had been the psychologist to seek them out. It seemed as if she was always conveniently easy to find, and that was actually quite suspicious. It made Tseng theorise that the woman knew more than she should. But if that was the truth, then why? And how?

It was getting too late to wonder about that right now though. Their tracking down victims had taken up the remainder of the day. It was time to head back home and resume their search tomorrow.

0o0o0

Before Tseng headed home, he made sure to remind himself to check up on Cissnei. After he'd sent her home he hadn't heard anything from her. He hoped she'd taken his advice to heart and took some rest while also doing something to get her mind off of the emotional impact of this case. He would prefer it if she could return back to work tomorrow. With the tapes still needing to be viewed, more victims to be investigated along with this mysterious therapist, they had their work cut out for them and Tseng needed everyone of his team.

He first stopped by her house, but there was no answer. He then decided to check the next likely place for her to be. Tseng knew Cissnei liked to spend a lot of her spare time at a local gym. It was on route to his own apartment, so it wasn't too inconvenient to check the place out.

Sure enough he easily spotted the curly red-head as soon as he'd entered the building. She was in a corner, dressed in a white sleeveless shirt and tight black running pants. Her hands were wrapped in black fingerless gloves, which she was repeatedly smashing into the boxing bag in front of her with force, keeping herself balanced on brightly coloured sneakers.

It was amazing how much force the petite girl could muster. The boxing bag never stood a chance as hit after hit made it swing back and forth. She might be a bit sensitive at times, but she was also not someone to mess around with. Underneath her usual uniform she hid some solid muscles.

Tseng was pleased to see her like this. Though she was sweating, she looked a lot better than she had this morning. Boxing always helped her in making her feel better. That much Tseng had learned about her during the years they had worked together. Whenever something bothered her, he could usually find her here, kicking the crap out of the boxing bag.

Since it wasn't too busy at the gym right at this moment, Tseng decided to walk up to her. She noticed him before he'd reached her though. It wasn't difficult considering that he really stood out with his suit still on.

"Boss." She spoke up, stopping her moves. She then quickly reached for a nearby towel to wipe down her face and took a few gulps of water from her bottle.

"How are you doing Cissnei?" He asked in a gentle, but firm tone.

"Much better." She said confidently with a nod, "You were right that I needed to get this out of my system. But I feel much better now and am ready to get back to work tomorrow."

"That is good to hear. I trust that you've shown this poor thing no mercy." He indicated towards the boxing bag.

Cissnei let out a short laugh, "Not really no, but I really needed that."

A brief comfortable silence fell between them as they both sat down on a nearby bench. Cissnei wiped her face again and took another swig of water. She hadn't noticed how hard she'd been pushing herself, but now that she'd stopped she surely felt it. It was a good feeling though. She loved pushing herself physically. It was a good way for her to let go of stress and clear her mind. She indeed was confident that she could continue working on the case now.

Speaking of the case, "How's the case doing, boss?" She asked him in a soft tone.

"We've been able to track down some of the victims. We haven't found a potential suspect yet, but I feel that we're moving in the right direction. We'll continue tomorrow."

"That's good. Did Rude manage without me?"

"He did fine. There's still a lot to be examined though, so I'm going to need you."

"You can count on me, boss." She reaffirmed with a nod.

"I have no doubt that I can."

Tseng stood up from the bench they had taken a seat on, indicating that he was about to leave, "I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Yes. I'll be there."

With the firm affirmation ringing soundly in his ears, Tseng nodded at the girl and left to go home. He felt that it was going to be difficult night yet still after all the stories he had to hear today, but at least he could draw strength from the fact that his team wasn't falling apart over the case.

0o0o0

The next morning began at the office of the MPD with the entire team brought together for an update about the case. It wasn't unusual to have one of these a few days into any investigation, but this time Veld had made sure to press for one. Despite his efforts to keep himself updated he was beginning to lose track of what everyone was doing. So even though Tseng had been able to avoid him yesterday due to being on the road so much, there was no getting around it today.

"The phone call reporting how the victim failed to come in for his work and wasn't responding to any call to his phone, came in at 10 am sharp two days ago. The caller was the victim's boss, president Shinra. Upon arriving at the scene we found the body of the victim in his living room. At that point he was already deceased, so a forensic investigation was set up immediately according to standard protocol." Tseng reported started off, turning his attention to Rude, who took it as a sign to speak up.

"Our investigation of the scene and interrogations of the victim's neighbours revealed no substantial evidence." The bald man continued.

"There wasn't even a single bit of evidence? Not even a hair?" Veld questioned.

"No sir." Rude denied, "We examined the scene thoroughly but couldn't find anything."

"I've examined the victim's clothes. They also have nothing but our victim's DNA. I couldn't even get a fingerprint." Cissnei added.

"How could someone be so clean?" Veld wanted to know.

"By being prepared." Tseng concluded, "The lack of physical evidence and the cause of death all seem to indicate so."

"How so?"

Tseng then turned to Elena, who scrambled to pick up her own report and started to speak, "The victim was found with a bullet wound on the left side of his chest, and a severely damaged face. Analysis shows that the chest wound was caused by a shot from a standard handgun at a distance no more than five metres. It went straight to the heart and killed him instantly. The wounds to his face were caused afterwards. No other DNA than that of the victim has been found on the body. There have also been no signs of a struggle."

"The state of the scene confirms this." Rude supplemented, "Everything indicates that he simply dropped dead where he was currently standing."

"So you're meaning to tell me that somehow the killer was prepared enough to bring a gun and able to keep all types of physical evidence from the scene, but the victim didn't try to stop him?"

"It all seems to indicate so." Tseng nodded.

"But why would that be?"

"Perhaps he wasn't afraid to die, yo." Reno piped up, causing everyone in the room to look at him with curiosity. He simply shrugged, "I mean, with the abuse of those children and all. Maybe he was secretly feeling guilty and accepted his death without any struggle."

"That is possible, but not very likely." Tseng disagreed, "The analysis of the evidence I found in his house of the abuse provides no indication that the victim was feeling guilty over anything."

"Then what do you suggest Tseng?"

"Overconfidence." He concluded after a brief moment of thought.

"How's that, boss?" Reno wondered.

"Just think about it Reno. So far everything we've heard about the victim is about how reserved he was. Most perceived it as arrogance, though there there're also hints that indicate a genuine lack of social skills. So far all the victims we've sought out reported they have been threatened by him after their abuse. The centre of his activities was located in a secret basement that was very well hidden. He knew exactly what he was doing and was meticulous and prepared in everything he did. He loved the power he could execute over others and for years he's been able to execute his activities without being at risk of getting caught."

Tseng briefly paused to allow his words to sink in before he continued, "We believe one of his former victims is responsible for his murder. But put yourself in Sephiroth's shoes. Imagine a former victim shows up - one that has potentially been silent for years – and asks to be let inside the house. Though he might have suspected something, his own arrogance could have been his downfall. Since he's an accomplished fighter himself, he believes that he will always have the upper hand, possibly even have another go with his former victim. Besides, this victim of his is traumatised, possibly not able to pull the trigger even though he came there with that intention in mind. Even though he's facing danger he still believes that he is in control. Though sadly for our victim he underestimated his killer."

"That sounds plausible, yo."

Veld narrowed his eyes at the theory, "So you still believe one of these children is responsible."

"I do. As a matter of fact, I'm certain. Judging from what we know about the victim's character, there's only a handful of people who he would have allowed into his home without a fuss - them being his closest colleagues. They also have the means, because they all own a standard handgun. However, none of them have any motive and their alibis have all checked out."

"Basically there's no one other than his own victims that would have wanted him dead." Rude added.

"There are numerous people who oppose Shinra and Sephiroth by association." Veld objected.

"Indeed." Tseng agreed, knowing that the matter shouldn't be simply dismissed, but then continued, "But any resistance group would have simply chosen to kill the man as quickly as possible. Many of them would have also left evidence of their involvement on the scene. The fact that his face has been damaged so severely afterwards indicates that this was a kill for personal reasons. Having been abused by our victim easily makes it personal enough."

"That still poses one problem though. Standard handguns aren't exactly easy to get around here. I say it's a little too convenient that our victim was killed with one while his colleagues aren't suspicious." Cissnei prompted.

"Perhaps the killer is associated with someone who owns one, and was able to get to it in that way." Elena suggested.

Veld regarded the pathologist. This matter wasn't really her field of expertise, and the suggestion was a bit vague. Still, it was an interesting notion, "Care to elaborate on that Elena?"

The young woman grew a bit flustered then. The idea had suddenly sprung to mind and wasn't really thought out, "W-Well, I was just th-thinking, with the large amount of victims that Sephiroth has accumulated over the years there's a good chance that one of them is connected to one of his colleagues."

"That's actually not that long of a stretch." Cissnei agreed, "Though we haven't been able to find out who all of these victims are, of the ones that we do know Rude has been able to conclude that they all came from different walks of life."

"I have." Rude confirmed, "Just compare Tifa Lockheart and Yuffie Kisaragi. Tifa hails from a nondescript family while Yuffie is the daughter of the Wutaian ambassador. Clearly our victim didn't care who his victims were. If they…appealed to him, he would go after them."

"Cocky piece of shit." Reno grumbled.

"All right." Veld said, letting out a long sigh as he rubbed the area between his eyes with his thumb and index finger, "I guess there's really no denying it. No matter how much I want for this to not be the case, I cannot refute the theories you pose here." He looked at his team directly then, "That doesn't mean that I want you all to continue exercising extreme caution while handling this case. As it stands we simply cannot allow for the press to get any air of what's really going on here." He then looked at Tseng specifically, "What are your plans for now Tseng?"

"Elena has finished up the autopsy of the victim's body, so I would like to have her give Cissnei and Rude a hand. The two of them are going to continue working on trying to find out who these children are." He briefly glanced at Elena before continuing, "But with Elena's suggestion it might also be worthwhile to do additional background checks of all of the victim's colleagues to see if there are any leads there. Meanwhile, Reno and I will continue to seek out and investigate these victims in search of potential suspects. I would also like to visit one Lucrecia Crescent. She's a psychologist who has apparently provided therapy for a lot of Sephiroth's victims."

Veld nodded, "That sounds good for now. I want to be updated regularly on anything that you find. For now, get back to work."

With those words the meeting ended. Everyone got up from their seats to do as they were told. Elena briefly walked up to Tseng and timidly thanked him for taking her suggestion so seriously before she scurried off. Reno couldn't help but laugh slightly at her antics, while his boss just let out another exasperated sigh.

0o0o0

 **A/N:** First of all, for those who wonder about the Wutainese, I've used Dutch. It's my native language, so now I know the sentences are correct (and for someone who has to deal with the horrors of Google Translate on a daily basis, that's a big deal). I hope the sentences weren't too difficult and the surrounding descriptions made everything clear enough. If all else, you're experiencing it exactly like Reno did :).

Ah, but the Yuffie scene was so hard to write. I hope I did Godo justice. I love the meeting scene at the end though. It allowed me to have the characters spout some theories surrounding this case that needed to be addressed.

That's all! Until next time!


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Welcome to chapter 5 of Salvation for the Broken Children!

Happy New Year everyone! May 2016 be filled with lots of love, successes and creativity.

I start off my first post of this year with a long chapter. I could have cut it, but I'm dead set on which scenes I want in every chapter so I'll end it with seven chapters. I just realised how ironic that number is… XD. Anyway, let's continue solving this case shall we?

 **Warnings:** If you got through chapter 2 alright then you should be fine now. Don't worry about details of what happened to those children, since I don't go into them.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters.

0o0o0

 **Chapter 5**

The first thing Tseng and Reno did after the meeting had ended, was to seek out Lucrecia. They had Rude find out where they could find her, which didn't take up too much time. Tseng's earlier observation that she was very easy to find for Sephiroth's victims proved to be true. A simple query for her name on the search engine brought them right to the website of her private practice.

Tseng took a little bit of time to take a closer look at the website. Unlike what he had expected, Lucrecia didn't advertise herself as a specialist in rape victims. Instead her website portrayed her as a psychologist for teenagers. She dealt with a wide variety of teenage problems, from helping out teens with a low self esteem, to those battling with an addiction. He also took special note of the introductory text at the top of her homepage. It said:

 _Is your teen acting in a way that you're not sure how to handle? For example, is your teen excessively sad or withdrawn? Then doctor Lucrecia Crescent can help you and your teenage son or daughter out._

 _Due to the many biological changes that teens are going through during their puberty, it can cause their behaviour to change in such a way that parents don't always know what to do. It is no shame to ask for help. Lucrecia is specialised in dealing with teenage problems. She will provide your son or daughter with a safe and comfortable environment that will stimulate positive progress._

It was the first paragraph in particular that drew Tseng's attention. The fact that the emotions of being sad or withdrawn were specifically chosen is what he took note of. There could have been any number of emotions listed there, but the ones that were there were the most common ones for rape victims, or those of abuse. Considering that he knew that she treated a lot of Sephiroth's victims, he had a suspicion that those words were chosen very carefully to lead them straight to her.

After this brief analysis of the therapist, Tseng and Reno made ready to leave. There was one final thing that needed to be taken care of however. Due to being on the road so much, Tseng had never had the opportunity to start viewing those tapes. Though he internally wished he or any of his team would never have to view them, the fact that they would likely provide them with conclusive evidence to Sephiroth's activities made it necessary to do so. What purpose they would have for the remainder of the investigation was as of yet unclear, but it had to be done.

So, before Tseng and his second in command left, he grudgingly gave the task to Rude. The man was more stoic than Cissnei, and would likely be less affected by its contents. Rude in turn accepted the task with dignity, leaving Cissnei to continue working on trying to match names to the pictures, while he focussed on the tapes.

0o0o0

It was late in the morning by the time Tseng and Reno finally arrived at Lucrecia's practice. It was a quaint building at the edge of Sector 3 slums. Contrary to the other buildings in the area, which for the most part were rather rundown, the practice was in good condition. The walls were made of solid red bricks, contrary to the grey chipped concrete of its neighbours. The windows whole and the door made of sturdy, painted wood. Despite the fact that she practiced her profession in a poorer part of the city, it was clear that she was doing well for herself and served as a respected member of the community.

Upon entering the building, the two detectives found themselves in the lobby. On the left side was a mahogany desk. A man with long black hair dressed in a casual, yet not too informal, outfit sat behind it, tapping away at a laptop. He looked up when he saw the two men walk inside, and turned his attention to them.

"Can I help you?" He asked in a low, though not ungentle, voice.

"Yes." Tseng said as he took his badge from his pocket, "I'm detective Tseng of the MPD and this is my colleague Reno. We would like to speak to Lucrecia Crescent."

"What is it about if I may ask?"

Tseng carefully weighted his words before answering. He didn't know how much this man knew about what was going on, so he'd better play it safe, "Her name came up several times during the investigation of a case we're working on. We would like to find out whether she could provide some aid in our search."

"Okay." The man narrowed his eyes in suspicion despite his answer, "She is with a patient right now. If you're willing to wait for about ten minutes, she'll be on her lunch break then."

"That is fine."

Not willing to dally, Tseng led the way to some chairs. He took his time to observe what he was seeing. The walls were painted in a warm, soft orange colour. They were currently seated on one of the several yellow plush chairs lined up against the wall opposite to the reception desk. Several paintings with images of beautiful sites of nature gave off a soothing effect. All in all the room felt cosy rather than clinical, making it much easier for whoever came in to relax.

Both Tseng and Reno felt it was a working strategy. Instead of waiting stiffly for the therapist to become available to them, they settled down in their comfy seats and allowed the atmosphere to sink in. Reno was slightly easier to relax than Tseng, but the latter couldn't help but feel at ease. He concluded that this woman knew what she was doing. If two adult detectives, one of which was rather stoic in his professionalism, felt relaxed, then surely apprehensive teenagers would too.

They sat in comfortable silence, though the receptionist kept stealing suspicious glances their way every now and then while he continued working, while they waited. Before the ten minutes were up, the door at the far end of the room – to the detectives' right – opened up. A middle-aged woman with her long brown hair tied up in a high ponytail appeared in the doorway. Soon afterwards a teenage boy appeared too and both shook hands.

"Keep up the good work Johnny, and make sure to schedule your next appointment with Vincent." She said with a warm and gentle smile.

"I will doctor. Thank you." The boy replied before turning to the receptionist.

Before Vincent, as his name was now revealed, turned to help the teenager, he first turned his attention to the therapist, "Lucrecia, there are some men from the MPD here who want to talk to you."

Tseng could easily see how the woman's demeanour changed as she turned to face him and Reno with wide eyes. That reaction was suspicious on its own, "We are working on a case and believe you might be able to provide some aid in our search."

For a moment it looked like she was going to refuse. Though after a brief moment of hesitation she turned towards the receptionist, "Vincent, please cancel and reschedule all of my appointments for this afternoon."

Vincent rose an eyebrow in wonder, "Lucrecia, if these men-"

"Vincent, please, this is no time to argue. Just do as I tell you to." She interrupted him.

After a brief moment of silence, in which Vincent regarded his employer, he finally conceded with a nod.

Tseng and Reno watched the exchange with interest. In particular it made them wonder how much each of these two people knew. There was a good chance that at least Lucrecia knew why they were here. Now the question was what the reason was that she did. Was she aware that they were working on the Sephiroth case and did she know more about it? Was she perhaps even guilty? Or did she merely feel uncomfortable discussing the case because she treated the victims of his crimes? All of this Tseng and Reno were interested in finding out.

"Please come in." Lucrecia said softly to the two detectives.

The two stood up from their seats and followed the psychologist back into her office. Once inside she closed the door with a soft click and remained standing there with the knob in her hand. She looked to be contemplating something and Tseng wasn't going to interrupt her. Reno simply followed his boss's lead.

After a few moments the woman let out a sigh and faced the two men, "You are working on the Sephiroth case, right?" She inquired softly.

"We are." Tseng confirmed with a nod, "Your name was brought to our attention several times during our investigation, and we were hoping you might be able to shed some light on some matters."

"Then I also assume you have found some very specific evidence that led you to me."

Tseng nodded towards Reno, who took something from the inside pocket of his jacket. It was several of the pictures they had found. They specifically showed the children of which they knew they had been or were still being treated by this woman, so she should recognise them.

Lucrecia solemnly took them from the redhead's hands, looking at them with a torn expression. After she'd viewed them all she placed her hand on her mouth as she struggled to keep herself from crying. After a brief moment in order to collect herself, she swallowed thickly and faced the detectives again.

"Though I've known for years, it's difficult to actually look at what he's actually done."

"You knew about this, yo?" Reno said incredulously.

"Yes. Not in much detail, but I did."

"And you never tried to stop him?"

"I tried…but I simply couldn't…"

Reno wanted to reply to that again, but was stopped by Tseng, who held up his hand in a silent motion for him to keep quiet. The redhead complied, and allowed his boss to take over.

"Perhaps it's better if you could tell us how you knew."

Lucrecia frowned in confusion then, "You don't know?"

"What do you mean?" Tseng asked.

She shook her head then, "I guess not a lot of people really know him by any other name than his given one. My name is Lucrecia Crescent. My son is…Sephiroth Crescent."

Reno smacked his fist into the palm of his other hand then, "I knew the name sounded familiar, yo."

"Your son…" Tseng mused, internally berating himself for not realising it sooner.

Lucrecia nodded and fell silent again. She decided to finally move from her place by the door and move towards her desk. Once there she sank down in her seat with a defeated expression, putting her head in her hands as she did so. She needed a couple breaths in order to compose herself.

Tseng and Reno observed her with interest. With the revelation out of the way it was becoming more obvious how and why the therapist knew more. Also, if she was aware of her son's activities but was unable to stop him herself, it made sense that she would try her best to repair whatever damage he had caused.

But that still begged the question of how much she knew exactly, for how long, and why she hadn't ever told anyone. Tseng doubted from her reaction that she was an accomplice to the abuse, but not reporting it was a serious offence as well. He liked to know more.

Luckily he was given it sooner rather than later, "If only I had been a better mother, perhaps then all of this could have been avoided." She let out another sigh, "But it's no use talking about the 'what ifs' and 'maybes'. It won't change what has been done."

"You saw this coming?" Tseng inquired.

"I'm not sure really. I knew he was…awkward as a child – not like other children, but I never really expected it to escalate to this."

"You're being so cryptic, yo." Reno complained, "How about clearing some of this up?"

"I'm sorry. I'll try." She fixed the glasses on her face and properly faced the detectives in front of her for the first time, "I was only twenty when I got pregnant of Sephiroth. I didn't even really know the guy. I was still a college student at the time. I didn't have the money for an abortion."

"What about your parents, yo? Didn't they pay it for you?" Reno wondered.

Lucrecia shook her head, "Me and my parents…we were…not on very good terms. My dad wanted me to become a scientist, but I didn't want to. I left my home to study in Midgar and had been fending for myself ever since. But even if I did have the money, I also couldn't bring myself to get an abortion. I wanted to keep the child."

"If you didn't even have money for an abortion, then how did you manage to take care of the both of you?" Tseng wanted to know.

"I dropped out of school and started working two jobs to make a living. I was able to rent a small apartment here in the slums. It wasn't much, but it was something. I was lucky to have a kind neighbour to watch Sephiroth whenever I had to work once he was born, but I didn't get to spend much time with him." She sighed sadly then, "I guess that's where part of the problem lies. I never got to bond with him like a real mother should."

"You said he was an awkward child, different from others. When did you first start noticing that?"

"Not until much later, when he was a few years into school already. He still spent a lot of time at my neighbour's house, but things changed when she passed away. I was forced to quit one of my jobs and thus got to spend more time with him. It was then that I actually got to know my son. I noticed he was a very quiet boy. He didn't really play like children his age should. He also never brought any of the other children with him home. I tried encouraging him, but he always responded distant and aloof to the idea."

"What about that woman you left him with, yo?" Reno asked, "Didn't she notice he was different?"

"Not really." Lucrecia frowned, "But she was an old lady. She was happy to look after him for me, but part of it was because he wasn't a fussy child. She wasn't able to provide him what a young child really needed though, and actually always told me about how good he'd been. She also kept him away from the other children in the neighbourhood. The area was rather shady with all kinds of wrong types lurking around. She didn't want him to hang out with them, for which I was grateful."

"What about his school, yo? Surely his teachers would have noticed something off about him."

"They did, and they tried inviting me for a conversation numerous times, but I didn't have the time, or the opportunity to go." Lucrecia admitted, "Besides, I was a naïve young girl trying to be a single mother. Though I knew Sephiroth wasn't like the other children, he wasn't a difficult child. He didn't act out or got into trouble or anything, so I didn't feel like there was any real problem. I wrote off his lack of social behaviour as shame for his situation – being a kid from the slums that is."

"So he wasn't social, but also wasn't out of control. Rather it sounds like he was able to provide the socially desirable behaviour that kept confrontations to a minimum." Tseng mused, making note of how it fit with the man described by his colleagues.

"He was smart." Lucrecia supplied, "Intellectually he exceeded all of his peers. He was able to extend that to social behaviour."

"And that became a very dangerous combination." Tseng concluded.

"Yes…" Lucrecia took a deep breath to steady herself, "Though he perhaps didn't realise it himself, I believe that he was actually crying out for attention – to get an emotional bond with someone, but he simply didn't know how."

"So when did him 'crying out for attention' turn to him going about raping all those children? Reno asked next.

"He was sixteen." She replied with a firmness that spoke of absolute certainty, "Imagine my surprise when he brought home a girl one day."

"A girl, yo?"

"Yes, her name was Aeris." She smiled sadly again, "At first I was so happy when I saw her. I finally saw my son interact with a peer, and thought he was finally getting over his social awkwardness. She was a beautiful girl too, very polite and soft-spoken, but with a certain vibrancy that spoke of someone who was happy."

"Someone who had everything he didn't have." Tseng mused.

"Not really." Lucrecia disagreed, "She also lived in the slums and only had her mother left, but at the same time she did have a very good relationship with her. So there were both similarities and differences." She sighed then, "Though that might have been why she was his first victim, Sephiroth didn't really differentiate much between who he picked later."

"So she was his first victim?"

"Yes she was… I wasn't home when it happened the first time, but I started noticing how she was increasingly less vibrant whenever she came over. Eventually I didn't see her at all anymore. When I asked him he simply shrugged and said they'd broken up."

"And you never noticed what was going on between the two?"

"For the most part I did not. I had taken a second job again when Sephiroth had gotten a bit older and was able to stay at home alone for a few hours, so I wasn't always home when it happened."

Tseng raised an eyebrow in question, "So you were home at some other times." He stated.

"I was."

"And you never noticed anything strange going on?"

"I-I'm not sure actually." She hesitated slightly, pausing briefly to think about it, "I guess I was just in denial. I was so blinded by the thought that he actually was with someone that I didn't want to do anything to stop it."

"That makes me wonder about something, yo." Reno intervened, "What did he actually do back then? Surely he didn't have the means he did now."

"Indeed he didn't. Back then he also didn't work as meticulously as he did later. At that moment he simply wanted something, so he took it. I guess you could see him as the domineering type who would push his partner too far too fast. A lot of the girls probably didn't even consider it rape, since they were technically his current girlfriend."

"I see." Tseng pinched his chin in thought, "So then I gather he didn't have long relationships either."

"No he didn't. For as far as I was aware the longest relationship he'd had was one month, and that was with Aeris. Those who followed usually didn't last for more than a few days before…he would take what he wanted."

"And all this because he wanted some attention?" Reno commented with a frown, "That's sick, yo."

Lucrecia scrunched her face but kept back her tears, "Very sick. If only I had seen that back when he was still a child, then maybe this would have been avoided."

"Why didn't you try to stop him?" Reno said with a bit of anger, "Surely you knew that what he was doing was wrong? You may have been struggling to provide for the both of you, but you were his mother."

"I did!" She said defensively, "And I did try to stop him, I swear!"

"Then why are you sitting here dealing with the mess that he's caused?" The redhead challenged.

"Because I couldn't stop him!"

"Reno."

The tone in Tseng's voice was enough for him to know that he had to back off. Reno crossed his arms and looked away. Though he felt for her situation in the past, he also felt angry at her. She made many mistakes is her life. He felt that she either shouldn't have kept the baby or been smarter in how to raise a child. Judging from the fact that she was a successful psychologist now, she wasn't a dumb woman. How she would have made those wrong choices was a bit difficult for him to grasp.

Part of Reno's anger originated from the fact that he had been a kid from the slums as well. In fact, he was one of those shady street kids Lucrecia's neighbour had kept little Sephiroth away from. He would have gone the wrong way if it hadn't been for his parents. When they found out they had taken immediate action, keeping him away from those bad influences, and doing whatever they could to provide him with the best future possible. Though it took him a while to realise how much they wanted him to succeed, he eventually did. Today he was an adult man with a respectable job and a solid sense of morality. The slum rat was still a part of him, and it always would be, but he had his parents to thank for that part being small.

While Reno was backing off, Tseng took over again, "What did you do to try and stop him?" He asked in a soft voice.

The psychologist recomposed herself and answered the question, "I tried talking to him, explaining to him that what he was doing was wrong. But again he simply disregarded me. He told me to mind my own business. I tried being a real mother and be firm at that point, but he simply laughed at that. Though he wasn't a difficult child on the outside, he actually had no respect for me at all. 'Don't tried to be a mother where you never have been' he told me."

"So it only escalated from that point onwards?"

"Yes. He left home as soon as he left school. He got a job at Shinra early on and was able to work his way up in the company. I still visited him from time to time, and although I never witnessed any of his acts, I knew that he hadn't stopped. He still talked about his so called girlfriends and even the occasional boyfriend. I was shocked to hear how they were all teens several years younger than he was. Some even as young as thirteen."

"And you didn't seek any outside help?"

She looked away at that point and took a steadying breath, "No…I didn't have the money for professional help at first, and when he left home I decided to use the money I had to go back to school myself. I took up psychology in the hopes of trying to understand my son, and hopefully find some way to change him. But it turned out that it was too late for him. He didn't feel like he needed any help, and certainly not from me. All I could do was try and repair whatever damage he had done."

"What about after you realised you couldn't help him yourself? Why didn't you seek out help then?"

"I knew that he wasn't going to accept any psychological help, whether it was from me or anyone else, so the only place for me to go to would have been the police. By then he had already gained a very powerful position within Shinra and thus society. I felt it was useless and besides..." She turned back to Tseng and looked at him imploringly, "I'm a mother…he was my son…"

"You didn't want to accept that you'd failed."

She bowed her head in defeat, "Does that make me a bad person?"

Tseng briefly considered the question before answering, "No." He said firmly, "You've made some wrong choices, but that doesn't make you a bad person."

"Do I have to go to jail?"

"Yes." Reno answered.

"No." Tseng replied at the same time, shooting his second in command a look that told him to back off. When he did he turned his attention back to the psychologist, "You have kept this information to yourself all those years. This is considered a crime by association and could be put before a court of law. Then again, Sephiroth is already dead, so there is nothing to gain from that."

He allowed his words to sink in for a moment before continuing, "But that doesn't take away from the fact that whoever killed your son isn't guilty of murder. Just because his motives are easy to sympathise with doesn't mean we can disregard the act itself. It is my theory that one of his former victims is responsible for the crime. Since you've treated a large number of them, we were hoping that you could help us."

"It is possible I guess." Lucrecia conceded, "Though I cannot think of someone on top of my head, I do not think that the theory is unlikely."

"No leads again, yo." Reno grumbled sourly, "Or are you hiding something from us?"

"No." She said firmly, looking at the redhead with a challenging look, "I have been silent for too long, and though I too sympathise with all of his victims, the fact that he was my son remains. I grieve for his death and would like nothing more than to find out who did it."

"So he or she could go to jail where your son should have, yo?" Reno challenged back.

"No." She denied, "I don't want that to happen, but I do would like to know who was capable of doing it."

The two stared at each other for an intense moment. Reno just couldn't figure this woman out. On one hand her mother's love for her son had kept her from speaking up all these years, but now that someone else had cleaned up the mess, she also didn't want this person to pay. She was an odd combination of a grieving and a guilty mother. It was just right out confusing.

The redhead did see his boss from the corner of his eye observing them with a disapproving expression on his face. He wasn't happy with Reno's conduct and the redhead knew it. So instead of challenging the woman further he backed off again.

"I think we have all we need from here." Tseng decided to end it before things got out of hand, "We would like to request your continued help in identifying victims for our investigation. Also, if something comes to mind, we want you to contact us as soon as possible."

"Of course."

"Alright then. Let's go Reno."

With those words Tseng turned around and moved to leave the office. Reno made to follow him, though he couldn't resist shooting the woman a last disgusted look. It spoke volumes of what he thought of her.

In return Lucrecia simply took it in stride. Her silence had been despicable after all, so she couldn't blame him. As she watched the two men leave, she thought back about everything she'd told them. Guilt flooded her senses, and she was glad that she'd told Vincent to cancel all of her appointments for that afternoon.

0o0o0

After leaving the office, Tseng went straight to his car. This left Reno no opportunity to linger for any longer, just like his boss wanted. It was strange. It was uncommon for the two to walk like this - with Tseng walking in front with Reno trailing behind him like a naughty child. It was very much on purpose though, as was revealed when the two had stepped into the car and closed the doors.

"I am very disappointed in you Reno." Tseng said coldly, obviously not pleased.

Reno crossed his arms and leaned back, "Can you blame me, boss? She kept the sexual abuse of children by her son a secret for all these years, yo." He grumbled.

"That doesn't matter." Tseng disagreed firmly, "It shouldn't matter whether you're interrogating a criminal, associate or completely an innocent person. You should never, ever lose your composure like you did. It only served to provoke her and it didn't provide us with any useful information."

Silence fell in the car. Reno felt properly scolded for his actions, and was wise enough to realise that his boss was right. Though the woman had been able to clear up a lot of questions they had, it was only while Tseng was asking them that she did. Reno challenging the decisions she could no longer change indeed hadn't provided them with any additional information, since she was perfectly willing to tell them her story.

"Interrogation is an art." Tseng continued at a much softer tone, "It's about asking the right questions, reading the non-verbal signs the other person gives off and figuring out which buttons to push and when to push them. Challenging a person's way of thinking or a decision they've made can be a viable tactic if you know they are keeping information from you. In this case, it only served to be counterproductive." He looked straight at Reno at that point, forcing him to make eye contact, "You know all this, and you're a fine investigator, but this time you screwed up. Don't let it happen again."

"…I won't boss." The redhead conceded after a brief moment of hesitation.

"Good."

With the conversation over, Tseng turned back and started up the car. He started making his way back to the police station, They drove in silence for a few minutes before Reno spoke up again.

"Boss…I've been wondering, yo."

"About what?" Tseng said neutrally, still valuing whatever his colleague had to say.

"What are we doing this for?"

Tseng stopped the car at a red traffic light and took the opportunity to look at Reno inquiringly, "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is this case isn't like any other we've ever faced, yo. We have a dead man, need to find out who killed him, but find out that he is guilty of a terrible crime himself. I sometimes feel like I don't even want to find out who did it, because they've actually done the city a favour by killing him."

Tseng didn't answer the question immediately. He turned his attention back to the road in time to see the light turn to green. Reno…it almost felt like the redhead had read Tseng's thoughts and voiced them. He too had been struggling with the same dilemma. Committing a murder was a terrible crime, but how did it compare to systematic abuse?

"I understand what you're saying Reno." He eventually conceded, deciding to be honest, "However, it is not our jobs as investigators to judge. We are here to search for objective evidence that can be put up in a court of law. Then it's up to the judge and jury to decide what to do with it."

"But it's not fair, yo. Shinra isn't going to allow any of this to leak to the public, so he'll have whoever did this portrayed as some monster that killed the most prestigious person of the most prestigious company in the entire fucking world."

Reno couldn't have put it any better. Thanks to his words Tseng finally had a full understanding of his own feelings. It wasn't so much that he didn't want to find out who did it because he sympathised with them, but rather that Shinra would make sure that the ensuing law suit wouldn't be objective. Sephiroth being killed would be the only evidence presented, and the defendant would be portrayed as some kind of monster. Even if the judges and jury would question his motive, Shinra would make sure to bribe whoever did. In short, the person would not be given the justice they deserved.

Indeed, it just wasn't fair.

0o0o0

The remainder of their ride home was spent in silence. Both investigators had a lot to think about. Still, the investigation continued, also behind the scenes. Tseng expected there to be several reports sitting on his desk for his reviewing.

And there were, but Tseng was not able to view them right away. No, when he walked into his office he found it already occupied. Zack was sitting there. The raven-haired young man looked up when he heard the door open and see the detective walk inside.

"Tseng." He greeted with a subdued smile.

"Zack? Why are you here?" Tseng questioned, closing the door and walking to his desk and sitting down in his chair.

"I was wondering how the investigation was going." He admitted, "I was thinking maybe I can even help out. You know, since we're also working together on the AVALANCHE case."

That was true. Zack had been a great help in that case so far. If he hadn't had become a security officer, he would have made a fine detective in Tseng's opinion. Still, that didn't constitute for him getting access to just any information on the case. Not only that, but there was also the problem of Tseng having to keep certain aspects from the outside world and Zack had been Sephiroth's friend. For him to find out that his friend had been a child abuser would be a very bitter pill to swallow.

So instead of doing that, Tseng decided to take a different route and use this opportunity to rather some more information himself, "How are things going at your department by the way?"

"Well, me and the guys are still quite upset over what happened. Things have been pretty hectic. Genesis hasn't been able to get back to work yet. He's taking it very hard. Angeal was chosen to be the interim head of the department until we can figure out how to fill the vacancy. It's tough on him, because he has a lot of work alongside dealing with Seph's death. No one is willing to take the spot though. We all feel like none of us could replace Seph."

Tseng rose an eyebrow, "Was he that loved by his colleagues?"

"I wouldn't say he was loved." Zack disagreed, "He was widely respected though. People idolise him for being the face of Shinra, but they only see the posters and hear the stories of his prowess in battle. But those who've had the privilege to work under him would have the chance to see who he really was. He wasn't stuck up like many people expect him to be. He was simply very efficient at his job and expected everyone to perform their best. Sure, he did have some high standards that weren't easy for everyone to reach, but he wasn't condescending. In the end it all resulted in Shinra having the best functioning security department in the entire world. Right now we don't have anyone that confident enough to continue the legacy he left behind."

Tseng allowed the words to sink in. There wasn't much new information to be had from Zack's story. They already knew Sephiroth had been a meticulous and efficient person who was widely respected for his skills. However, with the way he was described unanimously, including his own mother, it seemed strange for him to even have any friends. This only strengthened the reason why he turned to the level of systematic abuse that he had.

Perhaps with the young security officer being here now this would be a great opportunity for Tseng to get an even clearer idea of what kind of man Sephiroth was like to those who knew him, "You might be able to clear something up for me. All the people we've spoken about Sephiroth have told us that he was a very reserved and private individual, and didn't have many friends."

"He was." Zack said with a firm nod.

"Yet you were one of the few. What was that like?"

"Hmm, that's a good question." Zack admitted as he pinched his chin in thought, "Honestly I don't think I would have become his friend if it wasn't for Angeal. You see, Angeal has been my mentor ever since I joined the department as an intern. It was through him that I was able to get to know Seph better."

"Do you know how Angeal got to be his friend?"

"A bit. From what Angeal told me he, Gen and Seph all joined around the same time and worked their way up the ranks together. The three of them were matched fairly evenly, Gen and Seph in particular. They both vied for the position of head of the department when the old one retired, though it was Seph who got it in the end. From what I understand they weren't exactly friends back then, but grew closer because Seph respected skill. They simply stuck together ever since I guess. Gen even developed feelings for Seph, but I believe you already know about that."

"I do." Tseng confirmed, "But what was he like as a friend?"

Zack shrugged, "A bit of an oddball I guess. Like I said, he respected skill, and therefore respected Angeal, Genensis and eventually me as well. We hung out together every once in a while, but it was usually because Gen had arranged it. Those meetings were…okay I guess. It always felt like Seph tolerated them rather than actually enjoyed them."

Tseng wanted to ask another question, but was interrupted by the sound of a phone vibrating. Zack perked up, and reached for his pocket, "Sorry about that." He apologised as he took out his PHS.

Zack had intended to take a quick look to see whether it was important, and look at it in detail later if it wasn't. As soon as he saw whom it was from however, he couldn't help but smile.

Tseng noticed this, "Good news?"

"Oh, no. Not in particular at least. It's just my boyfriend asking me at what time I'll be home."

"Your boyfriend? I though you were a ladies' man." Tseng observed with interest.

Zack chuckled briefly, "That's what I thought too, until I met Cloud." He started pushing some buttons on his phone then, showing Tseng the screen when he had found what he was looking for, "This is a picture of him."

The image, which was a selfie, showed two people. One of them was Zack. The other was a blonde boy of about the same age. Both were smiling at the camera. Zack rather abundantly, showing nothing but happiness, the other in a bit more reserved fashion, but still genuinely.

As Tseng looked at the picture he had a striking sense of déjà vu. He felt that the blonde boy, Cloud, looked familiar, though the name didn't ring any bells. He racked his brain to figure it out, but couldn't find a solution. He shook the feeling off then, thinking that if it was important it would come back to him eventually.

0o0o0

 **A/N:** And that's it for now. Oh boy, parts of this chapter were such a drag to write. I never intended the Lucrecia scene to drag out for so long, but I had to make sure everything was covered here. I hope it didn't leave any big questions answered. I also had to shift and rewrite parts of the scene with Zack around a lot to make it flow the way I wanted it too. Overall, I'm not too happy with how everything turned out, but it's decent I guess. Suggestions are welcome of course!

And yay! Cloud finally storms into battle…sort of…okay not really. But I can reveal he'll make an actual appearance in the next chapter! Until then!


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** Welcome to chapter 6 of Salvation for the Broken Children!

This is it, the penultimate chapter of this little story. We're getting eerily close to solving this case. Will the guesses that some readers have put up be right? Perhaps you may find the answer in this chapter.

 **Warnings:** If you got through chapter 2 alright then you should be fine now. Don't worry about details of what happened to those children, since I don't go into them.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters.

0o0o0

 **Chapter 6**

By the time Zack had finally left, Tseng allowed himself a brief moment to simply sink back down in his chair with a sigh. It wasn't often that a case seeped this much energy out of him. Actually, there was only one case that did, and that was the AVALANCHE case. Others never really did.

The reason for that was quite clear to the stoic detective. In general his work was simple. A crime would occur, he sought out the one responsible for it and gathered the evidence for the court to judge the culprit as they saw fit. Sure there were always more sides to the stories. It was hardly ever a case of black and white, good and evil. But never had there been a conflict of interests as there had been in this case. With the culprit going up against Shinra, there was no winning, even if they had done more good than bad in a lot of people's eyes.

Sadly that didn't stop Tseng from having to fulfil his duty. Even though he wanted justice for all the people involved – all those children, the one who killed Sephiroth, even the man himself – there was no probably no way to achieve that. He could technically close the case at some point without actually trying to find the murderer.

The moment that thought entered his mind he rejected it immediately. Shinra would haunt him – or Veld rather – to find out who had killed their poster boy, and they would not rest until someone was convicted. Tseng had no doubts they would even point out an innocent person as their scapegoat if it suited them.

But more important than Shinra being corrupt was Tseng's own sense of duty. No matter how he felt morally about the case itself, his honour as a policeman and a Wutaian would not allow him to give up.

And so, after allowing himself a short minute of weakness, Tseng took a deep breath and straightened himself again. He sculpted his face back to his usual stoic expression and turned his attention back to his work. The files that had been sitting on his desk when he came in earlier were still there for his reviewing, and he would do it.

0o0o0

It was nearing the end of the day by the time Tseng had gotten through the files. It hadn't helped that more had come in as time had progressed. He let out a small sigh when he finally closed the last folder. Once again nothing of note had been found. That is, nothing that could help the investigation forward. Cissnei had managed to track down a few more victims, but they still needed to be questioned. Meanwhile Elena had started doing background checks on Sephiroth's colleagues in order to see whether they could match family members to any of their victims. Of the few she'd covered so far, none seemed to match.

Rude's report had been more interesting. He had been analysing the tapes. His report on them had been concise and very helpful. For one it was now established without a doubt that Sephiroth had been a child molester. Rude stated that the man had been clearly visible in all of his tapes. Plus, he had actually had a hand in helping Cissnei out in identifying victims. Though Sephiroth had not kept any record of who had been in his clutches, he often addressed his victim by their first name in the video.

But other than that, they were still no closer into finding the one who murdered him. There was still no one who stood out from the get go. If they kept this up, it might still take weeks before they eventually found the needle in the haystack.

There was nothing Tseng could do about it though. It was a simple process of elimination until they found the one they were looking for. He couldn't help but feel he was close though.

He was about to call it a day when Cissnei walked into his office with another file in her hands, "This is the final one for today, boss." She said before handing him the folder.

"Thank you Cissnei." He replied, deciding that this one would truly be the last one to review for today.

Instead of leaving the room right away, Cissnei actually sat down in one of the other seats, silently observing her superior. She did this more often. It was usually a sign that she wanted to talk, but she didn't speak up herself because she didn't want to disturb Tseng in his work.

Tseng knew that too though, so looked over the top of the folder at the girl and asked, "You want to talk about something Cissnei?"

"Yeah…did something happen to Reno today?"

Tseng frowned, "Why? Did he say something?"

"Actually, it's rather his lack of saying anything that bothers me."

"I'm not sure I understand what you're hinting at Cissnei. Could you be clearer?"

"I'm sorry, boss." She said sheepishly, "It's just that it tends to be noisy around the station when Reno is around, but he hardly spoke a word ever since you two came back. It's so unlike him that I thought something had perhaps happened."

Tseng slowly placed the folder on his desk as he thought about the girl's words. He knew all too well how loud Reno could be at times. He also knew what had happened at doctor Crescent's practice and the redhead's subsequent doubts about the case. Perhaps it bothered him more than he'd let on.

He was glad that Cissnei had chosen to come and talk to him about it. This case was sensitive and very stressful on all of them. He couldn't afford to let it drive his team apart. He'd already nearly lost Cissnei, though luckily she had been able to bounce back quickly. So he needed to make sure Reno stayed on as well. Though Tseng was their superior, Reno was also his partner, and therefore a very valuable team member to him.

"Is he still at the station?" Tseng chose to ask.

"I think so. I think I saw him lurking around Rude earlier. Do you want me to go get him?"

Tseng thought for a moment, "No, he'll sort it out if he's with Rude. You know how the two are."

"Yeah." Cissnei gave a small smile, "I swear if Reno wasn't your partner he and Rude would have become Siamese twins by now."

Both chuckled at the thought. Reno and Rude had been best friends for years now, though the two couldn't have been any more different. Where the redhead tended to be loud and disorganised, the bald Rude was rather quiet and diligent. Still, whenever Reno wasn't working alongside Tseng he could generally be found around Rude.

Once their chuckling had died down, Tseng did notice that the matter wasn't entirely settled for Cissnei yet, so he added, "This case is hard on all of us, Cissnei, even on Reno. Just allow him some time to sort himself out."

Through those words she understood that whatever had happened to their colleague was had something to do with the case itself. She of all people understood how much this case affected their emotions. It also told her that she was right to worry, but should keep herself out of it for now. Tseng would handle it.

"I understand, boss. I guess I'll get going then."

"Wait a moment please Cissnei." Tseng stopped her, making her look at him questioningly.

Tseng briefly turned his attention back to the folder the girl had brought in. It happened to be the background check on none other than Zack Fair. It didn't hold any new information. Zack's parents were living in the young man's home town of Gongaga. It was a small village situated far away on the western continent. Elena had however not been able to find out that Zack was currently in a relationship with anyone. Tseng guessed that might be because the two were not living together, so they weren't registered to the same address.

But that also made Tseng frown. He thought back to the picture Zack had shown him before of himself and his boyfriend. The feeling that he had seen Cloud before crept up on him.

"I know your shift is technically up, but I would like you to do one more thing for me today."

"Sure boss. What do you need?"

He held up the folder, "I know that Zack has a boyfriend called Cloud, but he's not mentioned in this report. I would like you to see if you could find out more about him."

"Why?" Cissnei asked with a frown, "Do you think he's involved in the case?"

For some reason, Tseng thought exactly that. He just had this nagging feeling that Cloud looked familiar. Maybe if he would open up the binder with the pictures he'd found, he would find the young man among those photos. However, it would be much easier and quicker to have Cissnei search for him through the database, and match him to the catalogue they'd created of the victims that way.

"I just want to make sure our case files are complete." Tseng opted to reply instead, not ready to reveal his hunch just yet.

"Okay. Do you have any more information on him I can use?"

"I'm afraid not." Tseng shook his head, "I only know that his name is Cloud and that he is a young man of about Zack's age."

"Well, that's certainly not much to go on. Then again, how many people are called Cloud?" Cissnei said with a small grin, "I should be able to get back to you in half an hour."

With those words Cissnei left his office to do what he'd asked of her. He felt a little bad for asking her to work overtime, especially considering she'd pulled an all-nighter only two nights ago. But he just needed to know whether his hunch was right. Should Cloud match to one of the victims, he would be a strong potential subject.

He hated to think that it would be Zack's boyfriend of all people to be responsible. Thinking back on the way Zack had proudly shown the picture on this phone made him realise that he was very happy to be with him. To find out that this person had killed one of your friends…that was going to be a very bitter pill to swallow.

0o0o0

Cissnei had truly outdone herself this time. Within twenty minutes she had everything Tseng ever wanted to know about Cloud. His full name was Cloud Strife and he originally came from Nibelheim before moving to Midgar with his mother at the age of thirteen. He was now twenty-five years old - two years younger than Zack – and worked as a deliveryman for Highwind & Valentine, a company specialising in mechanical parts.

But the most interesting piece of information was that Tseng had been right in his gut feeling. Cloud Strife was a match to one of the victims.

He looked at the two pictures in front of him. One was from the binder and the other was a recent work id photo. The two boys were slightly different, as was understandable considering ten years had passed between the two. Young Cloud's blonde hair was longer, and tied back into a small ponytail at the nape of his neck. The spikes that were too short were jutting out in every which way they saw fit. Older Cloud's hair was much shorter and trimmed, though it retained his spiky quality. The striking sky-blue eyes were unmistakeable though. Without a doubt the two were the same person.

The fact that it was a match was both exciting and troubling. Cloud was his best bet on finding the murderer yet, but at the same time he was reminded of how much of a blow this could potentially be to Zack.

He had to do it though. Tseng had to seek out this Cloud Strife and interrogate him in order to see whether he was guilty or innocent. It was also better to not delay it. Waiting until tomorrow would only cause the matter to nag at him through the night.

He had given Reno a call just a moment earlier to meet him at his car. Luckily the redhead had not left the station yet, and although Tseng could clearly tell he was not in the mood for more work, he dutifully complied anyway. That was a redeeming quality of Reno. He might allow his emotions to dictate his actions a bit too much at times, but whenever Tseng needed him he would be there.

"Where are we going, boss?" Reno asked him as soon as they'd met up at Tseng's car.

Instead of answering the question he simply pushed the case file with both Cloud's and Zack's information into the redhead's hands, "Study it on the way Reno."

Reno frowned at the abrupt action but stepped into the car anyway. Once he had buckled up he opened the file to look at its contents, "Couldn't this have waited until tomorrow, boss?"

"Look at who he's associated with." Tseng replied instead.

Reno's frown deepened, but again did as he was told. His eyes grew when he read the section his boss referred to, "No way! This guy's Zack's boyfriend? Since when is he into guys?"

"That doesn't matter Reno. Remember Elena's suggestion during the meeting?"

The redhead briefly thought about it before remembering, "You mean that the one who murdered our victim could be associated with one of his colleagues?"

"Exactly."

"So you're saying that this is our guy?"

"It's very likely."

Reno looked back at the picture, a sad expression making its way to his face, "If he is the one we're looking for you're going to arrest him, aren't you?"

"That is our job." Tseng looked to the side while he was waiting at a red light, "I can count on you to do your job, right?"

Reno angrily closed the folder and looked away while clenching his fists en teeth. He still felt that it wasn't fair. His feelings had been very confusing. On one end he felt that whoever had killed Sephiroth should be caught and brought to trial, despite what the victim had done to them. For that he wanted to find out who it was as soon as possible. On the other end he knew that this person wouldn't be receiving the justice they deserved, which made him reluctant to solve the case.

He was at an impasse. Not even talking to Rude had made him able to sort out his feelings, so he was still stuck in-between wanting to solve the case and not wanting to find the murderer.

"We have irrefutable evidence that Sephiroth has done some horrible things to him if he turns out to be the murderer we're looking for." Reno said, turning his head to look at Tseng with a fierce expression, "I've seen some of the tapes myself, yo. There's no way Shinra can deny what has happened. As long as we bring forth every bit of evidence, justice should be served. And I'm going to work my hardest make that happen. Fuck Shinra to hell."

Tseng was internally very proud at his second in command for his determination. In all honesty he was speaking like a true detective. All that mattered was objective evidence and a suspect. No other external factors should matter, not even one as powerful as Shinra. If Tseng wanted to continue with the investigation because his honour wouldn't allow him to quit, then that very same honour should also ensure he would do anything within his power to make sure justice would be served.

He allowed himself a small smile, feeling fuelled with determination thanks to Reno's words, "Let's make sure justice will be served then."

Seeing that his superior had caught on to his feelings, Reno felt the anger dissipate slightly and gave a brief smile back. As long as they were both on the same path, nothing could stop them.

0o0o0

After a few more minutes Tseng parked his car in Sector 4. According to Cissnei's findings, this was where Cloud Strife lived. The detective took a good look at his surroundings. The area was somewhat of an enigma. It was on top of the plate, which meant that it was populated by some of the wealthier families, but it didn't look much better than most of the slums.

The streets were dirty and covered in loose waste lying around. Some had attempted to keep it somewhat decent by using large garbage bags, but those had been picked apart by birds and other animals, strewing their contents all around the street.

The houses were small and stacked closely together. Most were apartment buildings with rooms just big enough to house perhaps two people. In reality whole families would be crammed into one.

This was truly a neighbourhood that lay somewhere between good and bad. The people who lived here had jobs and made enough to get by on the plate, but it was only barely. Those who lived alone were still able to get by somewhat decently, but those who had families were really cramped for space.

The area fit with what Tseng had expected for the young man they were looking for. They knew he was a deliveryman, which wasn't likely to be a very well-paid job. His place of residence only confirmed that.

The specific address they needed was among one of the apartment buildings. They needed to get to the seventh floor and walk a short way across the gallery to get to the right number. One relief was that at least the elevator was working, so they didn't need to walk all those stairs to get there. Considering the state this neighbourhood was in, and this particular building too, it wasn't unthinkable that it might have been broken.

The first thing both Tseng and Reno noticed was that there were no lights burning on the inside. With evening descending rapidly on the city, most of the people had by now turned them on. The fact that this wasn't the case for Cloud's house didn't bode well. It was likely that the one they were looking for wasn't even at home.

Still, Tseng firmly knocked on the door in case they were wrong and Cloud simply hadn't turned on his lights yet. As expected there were no sounds coming from inside though, leaving the two detectives with no other option than to give up for now. Though Tseng would have preferred to get this done right now, it seemed that it just wasn't going to happen.

Their attention was drawn away from the closed door by the sound of the one next to them opening. A young woman wearing a waitress outfit underneath her open coat stepped out. Perhaps she knew where their elusive suspect was.

"Excuse me ma'am." Tseng asked politely.

She quickly turned her attention to them and gave both men a quick once-over before replying carefully, "Can I help you?"

"Yes. We are looking for the person who lives here."

"You mean Cloud?"

At least that confirmed they were indeed at the right place, "Yes, do you know when he might be home?" Tseng asked.

She shot them another suspicious look. It was obvious that she wasn't really comfortable. This wasn't strange, since the two detectives were probably the fanciest dressed men she would ever see walking around in this neighbourhood. For her this probably didn't spell much good.

Noticing this, Reno decided to step in, "Don't worry toots. We're not here to cause you any trouble, yo." He said with a disarming smile, "We just want to talk to Cloud, so would like to know where we can find him."

The young woman couldn't help but feel more at ease with Reno acting so amicably. She giggled slightly and visibly relaxed a bit, "Well, he'll probably not get home tonight. He's at his boyfriend's, and he usually stays there all night when he's there."

Of course, why didn't Tseng think about that earlier? The next most logical place for Cloud to be was at Zack's house. After all, the detective did remember Zack telling him that his boyfriend had texted him to ask at what time he would be home. It was only logical to assume that he'd asked that because he wanted to meet up.

"Awe, that's a bummer, yo." Reno said with a bit of an exaggerated sigh, "I guess we'll just have to come back later."

"Good luck with that. He's hardly been home at all this week." She added, while adjusting the small purse that hung from her shoulder, "I wish I could help you out some more, but I really need to get to work now."

"Of course toots."

With a final smile and a small wave the young woman walked away and left the two detectives alone.

"So what do we do now, boss?" Reno wondered.

That was a good question and Tseng needed some time to think about it. They basically had two options here. They could either go home and try again later, or seek out the blonde at Zack's house. It would be preferable to talk to Cloud without having Zack around, since it would be hard to keep information from him during the interrogation. Then again, if what the young woman had said was true, then it could take a while before Cloud would return home. Plus, if Cloud really was the one they were looking for, Zack was going to find out anyway.

So in the end it was really a matter of how certain Tseng was at this point that Cloud had killed Sephiroth. In all honesty he didn't have anything else to go on other than the fact that Cloud had access to a standard handgun through Zack and his gut feeling. Naturally the former had yet to be investigated in order for it to be certain that Zack's weapon had indeed been used, and the latter hardly served as any evidence at all.

Suffice to say, it was a tough decision for Tseng to make, but one he made quickly, "Let's head to Zack's house."

"Is that such a good idea, yo?" Reno questioned with a frown while the two started walking towards the exit of the building.

"Oh, but we're not going over there to see Cloud." Tseng said mysteriously.

"We're not?" Reno was getting confused now.

"No. We're going over there to confiscate Zack Fair's standard handgun so it can be analysed. If Cloud simply happens to be there, observing his reaction will be an added bonus."

Reno caught on to what his boss was planning now. He wanted to use a ruse in order to observe the blonde instead of confronting him head-on. He didn't even have to know they suspected him, let alone reveal to Zack what had happened to him in the past.

The redhead was grinning now, showing his superior that he understood, "All right. Let's go get that gun then, yo."

0o0o0

The neighbourhood Zack lived in in Sector 4 was a couple blocks removed from Cloud's, and it was a much nicer sight to behold. It wasn't a fancy area in any stretch of the word, but it was clean and presentable. It provided the home of many singles and small families that made enough money to live decent lives.

Zack's specific address was retrieved from the file Elena had made about him, which Tseng had decided to bring along before they had left the station. The lights were on this time, so Tseng didn't hesitate in ringing the doorbell.

Footsteps approached the door and a moment later a confused looking Zack came within their sight, "Tseng? Reno? Why are you two here?"

"Good evening Zack." Tseng greeted him, reminding himself to not ask about Cloud's whereabouts at this moment, "We've been analysing some of the evidence we've found in the case so far. We know for a fact that a standard handgun was used to kill Sephiroth. We've decided to confiscate and analyse all of his colleagues' guns in order to see f we can find a possible match."

"So you're here to get my weapon?"

"Yes." Tseng confirmed with a nod.

"Okay." Zack conceded while opening his door further to allow the two to come in, "I'll go get it. Could this really have not waited until tomorrow, though?"

"The chief has us working overtime, yo." Reno lied smoothly, "He wants us to get him Sephiroth's murderer as soon as possible."

"Awe, that sucks you guys. I'm glad you're putting in the effort though."

"Zack? Who is it?" Another voice called from the living room.

"Oh! I might as well introduce you now."

Tseng closely observed the way Zack said that. It seemed as if his whole face had lit up upon hearing the voice. It was a true sign of happiness, which actually made the detective feel only worse about Cloud being a suspect. He actually hoped his gut feeling was wrong for once.

"Cloud." Zack called while moving into the living room himself, catching the attention of the blonde young man who had been watching television from the couch, "These are Tseng and Reno. They work for the MPD. I told you about them before, remember?"

"Yeah." Cloud replied with a smile as he stood up, extending his hand for the two detectives to shake, "Nice to finally meet you. I'm Cloud."

"Nice to meet you too Cloud." Tseng replied formally.

"What's up, yo?" Reno said with a grin instead, "You know? I never thought Zack would end up with a guy of all people."

"I never even considered it too." Zack agreed, "But after I met Cloud it just sorta seemed to click. We got along really well very soon, and things just took off from there."

"How long have you been together, yo?" Reno asked.

"Let's see…what has it been now? About a year?"

"More like one year and three months Zack." Cloud corrected with a sigh, "But we were friends for about another year before that."

"Yeah, I'm not that good with dates." Zack said sheepishly.

The room fell silent after that, which felt a little awkward. That is until Cloud asked, "Excuse me for asking, but why are you here tonight?"

"Oh! Right, the gun!" Zack smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand, "I swear I'm such a scatterbrain at times."

With those words he left the living room to retrieve what Tseng and Reno had supposedly come here for. This was very fortunate, since they were now alone in the room with their suspect. This was turning out better than they'd thought.

"So, you're working on the Sephiroth case then?" Cloud asked in curiosity.

The question caused alarm bells to ring inside of Tseng's head. Every other victim they'd spoken so far had had some sort of a nervous reaction upon hearing that the two were from the MPD. Cloud hadn't even so much as flinched and was now even casually inquiring after the case. This was not how he expected one of Sephiroth's victims to react at all, which only seemed to confirm that he was actually the murderer they were looking for, and that he was confident that they wouldn't be able to figure it out.

"We are." He replied carefully.

"Zack was really upset when he first heard about his death." Cloud said with a sad expression, "I hope you'll find out who did this soon, so he can get some closure."

Now this made Tseng doubt. Was this an implicit invitation for him to figure it out, or was Cloud perhaps innocent after all? But even if he was innocent, shouldn't he be secretly happy that Sephiroth was dead? Considering the reactions they've had, it just seemed so out of place that the blonde was so casual about it. It would have been more logical for him to simply not talk about it rather than claiming that he wanted them to solve the case for his boyfriend's sake.

Or had they perhaps made a fatal error in matching this young man to Sephiroth's victims? It seemed pretty much impossible, since Tseng had seen the photos himself. The only logical explanation would be for Cloud to have an identical twin brother - which wasn't the case - or to have someone walk around who simply looked a lot like him. That too was a very unlikely scenario. With his intense blue eyes and spiky blonde hair he simply didn't have one of those 'common' looks. He stood out in a crowd rather than blend right in. There was just no way they could be wrong with this.

"We sure plan on doing so, yo." Reno replied when his boss would not.

Cloud gave a sure nod before turning his attention to the advancing footsteps down the hall.

"What have you guys been talking about?" Zack asked as he stepped back into the room, his standard handgun resting in his hands.

"Not much." Reno replied, "Just about how much your boyfriend here wants us to find out who killed your friend."

Zack hummed in reply while handing Tseng his gun, who had him put it into a sealable plastic bag to avoid any fingerprints from getting on it. He then joined Cloud and put an arm around his shoulders, "Well, Cloud has been very supportive these last few days." He smiled lovingly at the blonde and pressed a small kiss to his cheek, "Really I don't know what I would have done without him."

"It's okay Zack. You would have done the same for me." Cloud reassured him.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that I'm not grateful."

Tseng and Reno shared a brief look at that moment. They got what they came for, and shouldn't extend their visit for too much longer.

"Welp, let's just hope we'll solve the case soon then, yo."

"Yeah." Zack agreed. He then nodded towards his gun in Tseng's hands, "I'm not sure how that is going to be of any help though."

"We're just being thorough." Tseng explained, "But we've got more work to do, so we'd better get going."

"Right, I'll see you two out then."

"Thanks man." Reno said with a smile before turning to Cloud and offering him a salute, "Nice meeting ya, Cloud."

"Same here, Reno." Cloud replied confidently.

0o0o0

No matter how much Tseng wanted to continue with the case right away, he simply couldn't. He would have to wait for either Cissnei or Rude to analyse the gun, which wasn't going to happen until the next morning at least. He also had an idea to talk to Lucrecia again about Cloud's behaviour, but that too had to wait until the next day.

So for now they simply dropped off their new piece of evidence at the station and went to their separate homes for the night. At least Tseng felt that he could get a better night's rest now that he had gotten this out of the way.

0o0o0

The next morning found the two detectives going straight to Lucrecia's practice. Before they stepped in though, Tseng drew Reno to the side, "I trust that you can keep your emotions under control this time Reno."

"I will boss." The redhead said solemnly.

Seeing that his second in command meant it, Tseng nodded and led the way inside the building. Vincent was seated behind the reception desk again, and the door to Lucrecia's office was open. The two detectives had apparently arrived before the first patient. This was fortunate, since they wouldn't have to wait in order to speak with her.

"I hope this won't take too long." Vincent said gruffly, "Doctor Crescent's first patient has his appointment in ten minutes."

"Perfect. We won't take long, yo." Reno said with a grin, completely ignoring the man's hostile behaviour.

"Come on in." Lucrecia called from the office, not allowing Vincent to respond.

Both detectives walked inside the office and Reno closed the door behind them for some privacy. He then held himself back and let Tseng deal with this.

"Is there something I can do to help?" Lucrecia asked of them.

"Yes." Tseng confirmed, "Have you ever had a patient by the name of Cloud Strife?"

"Cloud Strife?" She pinched her chin in thought for a moment, "the name doesn't sound familiar, but allow me to check my case files just in case."

She stood up and walked towards the filing cabinet behind her. She pulled open one of the drawers and leafed through it. After a short minute she shook her head and closed the drawer again, "Like I thought, I have never had a patient by that name."

"He's one of your son's victims."

"I thought so. Sadly, I haven't been able to reach and offer help to all of them, so cannot tell you anything about him."

"Perhaps you can." Tseng disagreed, "Doctor, what are the ways victims of sexual abuse respond to it?"

The psychologist cocked her head in interest while she replied, "Most people experience intense shame for what has happened. In order to deal with the shame they can do a number of things. Some simply deny that it has happened and suppress the memory, others create a new personality. Only a small percentage of victims manage to overcome the experience without any help."

The first description certainly fit with what Tseng and Reno had seen with the other victims. So could Cloud's behaviour be explained because he had been among the small group to deal with the experience on his own? He needed to know more.

"How does a person manage to overcome something like that?"

"As with many other traumatic experiences, people generally go though the five steps of Kübler-Ross. First there is denial, in which victims try to convince themselves that it didn't happen. When there's no denying it they turn to anger. When that doesn't help they start to bargain. In this phase they will try to compensate the anger by doing other things, sometimes even those that seem positive on the surface. They'll find no compensation though, and so they feel powerless and become depressed. Once they get through that stage, they'll eventually reach acceptance.

"How fast a person goes through each stage and how their behaviour manifests itself is very different between individuals. Often those who do not require any help from a professional skip the denial stage, causing them to be able to undertake action quickly, and thus reaching acceptance earlier. For others it might as if they have accepted it while in truth they are stuck in a strong form of denial."

Tseng frowned, "For that latter group, does that include memory suppression?"

"It often does." Lucrecia confirmed with a nod.

This made matters even more complicated. With this information Cloud could have either been one of those people who had learned to accept what had happened by himself, or he was one of those who was so stuck in his denial that he simply didn't remember it.

Though on second thought, both options actually didn't make any sense. If Cloud had reached acceptance, then why would he have taken such drastic measures of killing Sephiroth? Also, if he was stuck in denial and not even remembering the experience, then killing the man didn't make any sense as well.

Tseng thought back to the state of the body as they'd found it. A clean kill with a bullet, but a severely bashed up face as well. It spoke of anger, but also of deliberation. It had been planned, it was personal and something must have triggered it.

But instead of speculating about this, Tseng decided to see if Lucrecia could provide him with a little bit more insight, "Does a person ever fully get over such an experience?"

"It's possible. There are different levels of acceptance. While some will always be affected by the trauma, others are hardly bothered by it anymore for the rest of their lives. In general they just learn how to deal with the memory. It never really leaves you, but you can make it a part of you in such a way that you'll manage to move on with your life. People still tend to be susceptible to triggers, but they'll learn techniques in how to deal with them."

Tseng crossed his arms then, "So, does it ever happen that a person can act very casual about it?"

Lucrecia shrugged, "It's possible I suppose. It's sometimes very difficult to predict how a person is going to react. Though if a victim is able to act casual about the traumatic event, I'd say that he or she either cut themselves off from their emotions, or that a high level of acceptance has been reached."

Now they were finally getting somewhere, "Doctor, the next question is very important. Could killing the one responsible for the traumatic event cause a high level of acceptance?"

"Yes." Lucrecia replied with certainty, "Under certain circumstances it could. The person would make the ultimate bargain by eliminating the source of the problem. There is a probability that the guilt over killing someone afterwards actually leads to depression because the bargain didn't work. But if that isn't the case, then acceptance would be reached."

That basically sealed it. It was the only explanation they had for Cloud's reaction. He had killed Sephiroth and didn't feel the least bit guilty about it, leading him to a high level of acceptance that allowed him to act casual about it.

Now all that remained was gathering more evidence, and then bring him in for a proper interrogation.

Thanking the psychologist, the two detectives said their goodbyes and made their way back outside. They had only just stepped into the car when Tseng's phone rang. He took the device from his pocket and looked at the screen, seeing that it was Cissnei calling.

"What do you have for me Cissnei?"

"Boss, good news. The gun you'd left for me to analyse? I've just confirmed it's the murder weapon."

Now that was exactly the type of evidence Tseng was looking for.

0o0o0

 **A/N:** Welp, I think there's basically no getting around it now. Ya'll have some very sharp detective skills and this story wasn't written to be completely unpredictable, rather about the emotions involved in the situation. Though it's yet to be completely confirmed, it's safe for me to say now that Cloud is indeed the murderer. There's still little evidence though, so will Tseng and Reno get a confession out of him? And what would it mean for Cloud's relationship with Zack? On that final note, I might just be able to surprise you.

Final chapter is in two weeks. See you then!


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** Welcome to chapter 7 of Salvation for the Broken Children!

10,000+ words?! *faints*

Gaia! When I said that this would be the last chapter I had never imagined it would become this big. There's enough words here for two chapters… It just proves once again that I suck at figuring out how many words I need for each scene, and thus suck at planning chapters.

Then again, I think you readers won't be complaining ;). So yeah, here we are. This is the final chapter of Salvation for the Broken Children. I would like to thank everyone who's read this story for giving it a chance. I would doubly like to thank those who took the time and effort to leave a review. Your kind words have motivated me throughout this little side project even though planning on writing this became a little hectic halfway through. I'm glad that I didn't have to skip updates on either of my stories.

But before I go on a tangent about this project, I'll let you read this chapter.

 **Warnings:** If you got through chapter 2 alright then you should be fine. I won't be going into any detail about what happened to Cloud.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters.

0o0o0

 **Chapter 7**

Tseng and Reno returned back to the station after their visit to doctor Crescent. With Cissnei's confirmation that Zack's handgun was the murder weapon, it was time to plot their next course of action.

Veld agreed. Better yet, the two detectives were immediately ordered to his office the moment they arrived at the station. Their chief was really serious about keeping on top of this case.

"Tseng, Reno, close the door and have a seat." Veld said upon arrival of his two men.

Tseng resisted the urge to frown. Their chief tended to be strict and to the point, but he was being exceptionally snappy in the way he'd said it. The look in his eyes was also very serious, as if he was either displeased or troubled by something. But instead of guessing why this would be, Tseng simply did as he was told by taking a seat while Reno closed the door before joining him.

Veld leaned forward on his desk and folded his hands together, "Throughout the investigation president Shinra has insisted that he'd be kept fully informed of its progress."

The revelation made Reno's eyes grow big, "What?! But it's against protocol to reveal case sensitive information to external sources with the only exception being that it might lead to solving the case, yo."

"You think I don't know that Reno?" Veld snapped.

"Then why did you do it?" Tseng asked in a much calmer tone of voice.

Veld sighed, "I have my reasons, but that it not why I called you to my office. Because he has access to the case files, he knows about the children, but also that you've found the murder weapon."

Veld grew quiet for a moment after those words and Tseng observed him. He could tell his chief wanted to say more, but needed to take a little bit of time before saying it. He quickly looked towards Reno at his side, who also turned his head to look at his boss. With a small shake of his head, Tseng told the redhead to stay quiet. Reno nodded, though he looked unpleased.

True to his observation, Veld eventually raised his clasped hands to his chin and continued to speak, "Shinra also know that the gun belongs to Zack Fair, and wants you to arrest him and put him up for trial."

Both Tseng's and Reno's eyes darkened with displeasure then. As expected Shinra was going to try and cover the whole abuse thing up by convicting an innocent man.

It was Reno who spoke up though, unable to keep quiet after this announcement, "But Zack is not the murderer, yo! It might be his gun, but he has no motive. We believe his boyfriend is the killer."

"No, Zack Fair is an ambitious young man who had his eyes set on the position Sephiroth occupied ever since he came to work at Shinra. Believing it his way to the top, he befriended the man so he could get close to him and then killed him. In the resulting confusion and chaos at his department, he stepped up and took charge."

"But that's not true, yo!"

"Indeed." Tseng agreed, "Zack told me himself that Angeal actually took over as an interim for now and that everybody doesn't feel qualified enough to take the position."

"Besides Zack has been nothing but cooperative in this investigation, yo. It would be unlikely for him to simply hand over his gun if he was aware that it was the murder weapon."

"You think I don't know that?!" Veld suddenly bellowed, causing his two subordinates to grow quiet, "I know that Zack is innocent, but this is the story Shinra wants us to present to the public."

"Really, yo? How can Shinra screw its own employees over like that?"

"It's a big company Reno." Tseng explained while crossing his arms, "Zack is only one insignificant employee to Shinra. It's got nothing to lose by putting him in jail, and it'll serve to keep Sephiroth's activities from the public."

"Indeed, and for my hide as much as your own, I expect the two of you to comply." Veld said.

"Like hell I will!" Reno then stood up and took his badge from his pocket before throwing it on his chief's desk, "You can fire me if you want to, but I'm not going to be a part of this…this…whatever the hell this cover-up is supposed to be."

Taken aback and obviously displeased by Reno's claim, Veld scowled. He then turned his attention to Tseng, "Do you feel the same way Tseng?"

"Yes chief." In a much calmer fashion he too took his badge and placed it on the desk, "I can understand that Shinra doesn't want the finer details of this case known to the public, but I will not stand for it that an innocent man will be sent to jail because of it. My honour does not allow it."

Reno looked pleased at his boss's support. After all, they had promised one another that they would make sure that justice would be served. The fact that Cloud was most likely the real murderer was bad enough, but to have Zack convicted instead – probably with a ridiculous sentence as well with the amount of influence Shinra had – just wasn't right.

Together they faced their chief again, standing as a united front. There was no way out for Veld. He would either lose two of his best men - and probably find no one else willing to take their position - or allow them to go after the real murderer despite the consequences caused by Shinra. In fact, knowing how much Tseng was respected by all his other colleagues – more than Veld himself even – allowing the former option would most likely break up the entire police department.

So in the end there was no other solution than to have the two pick their badges back up, and allow them to chase the truth.

0o0o0

After their confrontation with their chief, Tseng and Reno returned back to the Tseng's office to discuss how they were going to tackle solving this case once and for all.

"To be fair, we do not have a lot of evidence to support our case. Zack did have the opportunity, but no motive. Cloud on the other hand had both the opportunity and the motive. However, the match to the handgun is the only substantial evidence we've got, so it would be preferable to get a confession out of Cloud himself." Tseng summarised.

"It'll be difficult to get a confession out of him, yo. With the way he acted so casually before, I don't think he'll be broken that easily with just the evidence we've got."

"We might be able to use Zack after all." Tseng mused, "After all it's his gun. We could accuse him of being the murderer, and use the story Shinra wants us to use. Knowing him he's going to do whatever he can to prove his innocence. It might force him to give us some valuable information about the night of the murder. We can then interrogate Cloud and hope he'll make a mistake."

"Hope boss? Since when do you rely on chances, yo?"

"We don't have much of a choice here. There isn't much evidence to begin with and we cannot leak specific information to the press in order to make Cloud worry and more liable to make mistakes. I know that Zack is going to tell the truth as long as he doesn't realise that Cloud is involved. It might be a dirty trick to have him point out inconsistencies without realising it, but it's the best we've got. If anything, we might even have to pressure him into making him believe Zack will be convicted if he won't confess. I have a feeling he'd rather confess than put his innocent boyfriend in jail."

"Guess you've got a good point there, boss. Alright, let's get this party started, yo."

0o0o0

It was about half an hour later that Rude brought Zack in for questioning. It had been surprisingly easy to take him away from his work. Naturally Shinra had expected them to take its employee. Zack had been confused though, but went along quietly.

Both Tseng and Reno stepped into the room a few minutes later, both taking a seat opposite of the security guard.

"Why did you bring me here Tseng? Did you find out anything about the Sephiroth case?" Zack asked.

"Indeed we have." Tseng said. He placed the item he'd been holding on the table between them, which was Zack's handgun, "We've discovered that your handgun is the murder weapon."

Zack's eyes grew in shock and his mouth fell open. Tseng could easily tell that it was a genuine reaction of shock. He truly was innocent.

"Wait…what...how?"

"It's quite easy, yo. This gun was used to kill Sephiroth. We've also found no other finger prints than your own, so that makes you a suspect."

"But I didn't kill him!" Zack objected heatedly, "He was my friend! Why would I kill him?"

"Because you're an ambitious young man, Zack. You wanted Sephiroth's prestigious position for yourself."

"That's stupid, Tseng. I wouldn't kill someone over that. Besides, even if I would have I have no chance of getting that position. Either Angeal or Genesis are much more likely to get it."

"But Genesis is currently unable to function due to his grief, yo, and Angeal feels himself to be unqualified for the position. It would provide the perfect opportunity for you to step up, yo."

"That's even more stupid. If that was the case, wouldn't I be sitting in Seph's chair right now?"

"Then explain to us how it is that your gun turns out to be the murder weapon." Tseng pressed, feeling that Zack had been provoked enough to change the topic of their interrogation to what they really wanted to know.

"I…I don't know…perhaps it's not even my gun and someone switched it."

"We checked the serial number. It's yours." Tseng countered.

"Then maybe someone else took it, and put it back later."

Now they were getting to the crucial part.

"Who has access to your gun?"

Zack rolled his eyes, "Practically everyone at the department."

"But you always keep your gun with you, right yo? So did you miss it at some point and didn't tell us before?"

"No…no I've always had it with me while at work."

"Then how about outside of work?" Tseng hinted.

"That's impossible. I always keep my gun in a safe at home. The only ones who know the combination are me and Cl-" Zack stopped himself there as his eyes grew big again, but this time in realisation, "No…no way…Cloud wouldn't have killed Sephiroth. He has no reason to. He hardly even knew him."

This was the point where Tseng and Reno knew they had to continue carefully. Realising his boyfriend is the only suspect left, he might not be wiling to share information anymore. Also, judging from his reaction, he knew nothing about the abuse Cloud had suffered at the hands of Sephiroth in the past. That could actually serve to be helpful, since Zack really didn't think Cloud had any reason to kill Sephiroth. He might be more willing to share information because of it.

"But he did know him?" Tseng asked.

"A little bit." Zack confirmed, "I tried involving him in spending time with the guys. He doesn't really have many friends, so I thought to share mine."

"Did Cloud and Sephiroth get along?"

"I guess…they seemed to be ignoring each other for the most part though. I didn't think much of it because both of them aren't really strong socially." Zack then frowned as a thought came to him. His face then brightened, "But Cloud couldn't have done it. I would have noticed if he'd taken the gun. Besides, he was with me that night."

"Tell us about it, yo."

"Cloud was with me pretty much the entire weekend. He had to run a few deliveries that day while I stayed at home. It wasn't anything new that Cloud would work on Sunday, since he could make a little bit of extra cash then. He told me that he had a delivery to Kalm, so that he might be running a bit late. He called me around seven to say that he was done and would be heading back. He arrived around eight and was with me the entire evening and night."

The story sounded solid. Travelling between Midgar and Kalm took about an hour, so that much seemed right. Also, from the way Zack said it, it was clear that it wasn't odd for Cloud to have deliveries in the small town. There was basically no suspicious behaviour on Zack's part.

However, Elena had determined that Sephiroth was killed in the early evening. The travel time easily overlapped with that of the time of death. Did Cloud really have a delivery to Kalm that day, or did he simply make that up to give him enough time to perform the act? It certainly fit with the theory that it had been a planned murder.

Tseng briefly looked at Reno, seeing in the way he looked back at him that Reno had caught on to the same idea. This was the piece of information they'd been searching for. All they needed to do was contact Cloud's employer and see whether this story was true. Both had a feeling that it wasn't.

0o0o0

As soon as both detectives left the interrogation room, several things were set in motion. Tseng ordered Cissnei to contact Cloud's employer and get a hold of a work schedule. Meanwhile Rude set out to track Zack's boyfriend down and bring him in for questioning. With the efficiency in which the two could work, there would be little time to prepare for the interrogation, but luckily the Tseng and Reno had already gone over their entire plan in detail while waiting for Zack to be brought in.

It was about half an hour later that Rude reported back, saying that Cloud was waiting for them in the other interrogation room. Tseng and Reno shared a final look and nodded to one another. It was showtime.

Cloud was seated much like Zack was. He was dressed in black jeans and a blue polo shirt that bore the logo of his company. He held a cap bearing the same logo in his hands on the table in front of him. He looked up when the two detectives stepped into the room and didn't hesitate in speaking up.

"I hope you've got a good reason for bringing me here. I have deliveries to make."

"That's all been taken care of, yo. Someone else is doing them for you as this might take a while." Reno answered as he sat down in his own chair.

Cloud's expression darkened, "I get paid per delivery, so I'm losing money while I'm here."

"That is unfortunate, but we have a lot of important matters to discuss with you." Tseng replied.

The detective pulled something from the folder he'd brought in. He placed it on the table and pushed it towards the blonde. He then closely watched for any sort of reaction.

Once Tseng had retracted his hand Cloud could see that it was one of the pictures Sephiroth had made. He looked at it with a blank expression. There was a small flash of surprise crossing his features, but other than that he gave no outward emotion of shock or fear like they'd seen in the others. Eventually he pushed the photo back towards the detective and leaned back in his chair while crossing his arms and looking away.

"That was a long time ago. I got over that." He claimed, though Tseng viewed the reaction as a small crack in his defences.

"When we came to Zack's house last night to confiscate his gun you told us that you hoped that we would find out who killed Sephiroth soon. Is that really how you feel?" Tseng asked.

Cloud turned back to face him then, "Like I said, what happened between me and Sephiroth in the past was a long time ago. I got over what happened and moved on with my life. The man was Zack's friend and he was upset to hear about his death. Naturally I want him to feel better. I love him."

"Enough to kill for him, yo?" Reno dared to ask.

Cloud glared at Reno for the suggestion, but didn't respond to the question. They were interrupted by the sound of a vibrating phone. Tseng quickly took his device from his pocket and checked the message that had come in before sliding it back in.

"Perhaps you can tell us where you were last Sunday between six and nine pm." Tseng suggested.

"I was working first and with Zack for the entire night after that. You can ask him."

"At what time did you leave work?"

"I-I had a delivery in Kalm that night. I think it was around six…no seven that I headed back."

Both Tseng and Reno didn't miss the hesitation. Though he kept up a good front, it was becoming clearer that Cloud started noticing that his carefully crafted alibi was cracking even further. Time to wrench it open.

"That's not what your work schedule says." Tseng revealed, "I've just received a message that indicates that you had to make your last delivery around seven o'clock in Sector 3 in Midgar."

"I was done early." Cloud reacted a bit too quickly, "So I took on another delivery. That's why it isn't on my schedule."

"If you took on another delivery on the fly, then how come you'd been able to inform your boyfriend of it _before_ you went to work that day, yo?"

Cloud finally started to look worried. He looked back and forth between the two detectives while desperately searching for an answer only to come up with nothing. Now that the blonde was cornered, it was time to cut to the chase.

"Listen to me Cloud." Tseng said calmly, "We know that you killed Sephiroth for what he's done to you ten years ago. How about you start telling the truth and confess?"

"I didn't kill him!"

"We have confirmed that Zack's handgun is the murder weapon, yo. If you don't confess then it's going to be him who's going to jail." Reno pressed.

"What?..." Cloud was shocked, "But he's innocent."

"We know that, yo. But without a confession we have to start making our own guesses. Zack's gun killed Sephiroth, ergo he's the most likely suspect in our case."

"Just tell us the truth Cloud." Tseng added.

Silence fell in the room. Cloud was looking down at his legs with his hands fisted on his knees. Though he knew there was no running away anymore, he was still debating over whether to confess or not. Eventually he unclenched his fists and let his shoulders sag – a sign of defeat.

"I never thought you'd figure it out." He started to say, looking up with a sad expression, "I never thought you'd find out what kind of man Sephiroth was, so that you would never link me to his murder."

"Is that why you've been able to act so casually about it?" Tseng asked.

Cloud shrugged, "Pretty much, though it's also because I'm finally not afraid anymore."

Reno cocked his head, "You've been afraid, yo?"

"You don't understand." Cloud shook his head, "You don't understand what being raped multiple times by a man you hold in high regard does to you."

"I think we've got a pretty good idea, yo. We've been talking to a lot of his former victims."

"No, you don't understand." Cloud pressed, "You don't know what it's like when, whenever your boyfriend tries to be with you, even with something as simple as a hug, you recoil in fear because you see _his_ face instead of the one you love."

"Is that the reason why you decided to kill him now?" Tseng inquired.

"It's…more complicated than that."

"Then try to make us understand."

Cloud took a deep breath and nodded, "I have never been more frightened than that day when I woke up in that horrible room. Afterwards, I had nightmares for weeks on end. Eventually I started to convince myself that it actually had all been a dream. After that I just…forgot about it. I was aware that it had happened, but it just felt so unreal."

"Didn't your mother notice anything strange about you?" Tseng asked.

"She did actually. But I always insisted that I was fine. I didn't want her to worry. Besides, I was a bit of an oddball as a teen to begin with. I didn't really have any friends, because I thought all the kids my age were stupid and childish. So other than my nightmares I didn't really act that much different."

That pretty much explained why Cloud never had any therapy, Tseng thought to himself.

"But anyway." Cloud continued, "I basically just moved on with my life. I was doing well enough I guess, until I met Zack. That's when things started going downhill."

"How so?"

"Zack is…very touchy feely, even with people he hardly knows. But whenever he tried giving me a hug, or put an arm around my shoulders, even if it was meant in friendship, I would just feel an intense amount of fear. All I could do was recoil away from him. It took me a very long time to accept even the smallest physical touch from him."

"And yet you got into a romantic relationship with him."

"Yeah. The chemistry had been there fairly soon after we'd met, but I was hardly ready for a normal friendship, let alone a romantic one. I-I wanted to be with Zack so bad, but was also so afraid of him pushing me too far too fast. It wasn't until I was fairly comfortable about him touching me in a friendly way that we decided to start dating. I just happened to be very lucky that Zack was willing to go very slow for me."

"So you were slowly making progress. Sounds to me like there was no reason for you to take such drastic measures, yo."

"I _was_ making progress. That is until I found out that Sephiroth was actually one of Zack's friends. After we'd been dating for several months he decided that I should get more friends, and introduced me to some of his. The moment I looked at Sephiroth all the memories I had tucked away before came flooding back. What was even worse was that I knew that he recognised me. He even managed to corner me in the kitchen one time."

"What happened then?"

 _Behind him was a wall. Two long arms were stretched besides his head, caging him in. Sephiroth was leaning forward, an odd, disturbed smirk on his face._

" _Well, well. I never thought I'd see you again." He said in a low voice._

" _I-I-I'm not a kid anymore." Cloud tried to be brave though he felt like he was fifteen years old again._

" _No you are not." Sephiroth looked up and down his body, making him feel violated already, "But that's okay. People grow up. It's only natural. Besides, you're now officially Zack's boyfriend, and I wouldn't want to hurt his feelings."_

" _Then why are you here?"_

" _I just want to give you a friendly reminder. If you really love Zack, then you'll keep what's happened between the two of us our little secret."_

" _And if I don't?" He dared to challenge._

 _Sephiroth leaned in a little further, making Cloud feel even more terrified, "Then I'll have to start making an exception. You still look young enough to be appealing to me, and Zack isn't too bad looking either. I might just take you both."_

 _Before Cloud had even a chance to respond Sephiroth leaned back again. Without another word he left the kitchen as if nothing had ever happened, confident that his threat would ensure the blonde's silence._

"Whenever I saw him after that, he would always look at me. It was as if he was silently reminding me of his words. Luckily he kept his distance after that." Cloud finished recounting the story.

"What did you do next?" Tseng asked.

"Nothing at first. I just tried to move on, but it was like I'd taken a huge step backwards. This time, whenever Zack tried to take the next small step in our intimacy I would start seeing Sephiroth's face instead of Zack's." Cloud paused briefly and heaved a deep sigh, "I just couldn't progress anymore. All of the hard work and patience had been for nothing. I knew that Zack was being very patient with me, but I also knew that he wouldn't be able to bear being with someone he could never be intimate with for the rest of his life. If I didn't want to lose him I had to do something."

"And that's when you got the plan for killing Sephiroth?"

"I didn't think about killing him at first. I simply tried avoiding him, and tried to push myself beyond that irrational fear I was feeling. But I just couldn't. And no matter how much I begged Zack to just continue, he just wouldn't. It wasn't until a few months later that I figured that killing him would be the only way."

"And so you started planning."

"Yeah, I knew it wasn't going to be easy. I was going to need a gun, because I couldn't hope to kill him any other way. I don't have the money to buy one, so I had to rely on getting Zack's gun instead. I knew that it was going to be a risk, but I was confident that Zack would be proven innocent, and that you wouldn't be able to link me to any kind of motive as well."

"I'm wondering though, yo. How did you get the gun out of the house and back in without Zack noticing?"

"I decided to stay with Zack that weekend. On Saturday, after Zack had gone to sleep, I snuck out of bed, took the gun from his safe and hid it in my bag. I knew Zack wasn't going to miss it the next day. I put it back in the safe on Sunday night in the same way."

"And you also told Zack you'd be late from work in order to buy you some time and give you an alibi."

Cloud nodded, "I knew I had about an hour after I'd called him, but it turned out to be enough time."

 _It was about ten past seven when Cloud had finally reached Sephiroth's house. He recognised it from all those years ago. On that faithful day he'd met his hero during a school trip to the Shinra Building, and said hero had later invited him into his house. He would have never guessed what would happen afterwards._

 _The neighbourhood was quiet at this time of night, which suited him perfectly. He made a final check to see whether the beanie he was wearing covered all of his hair and he pulled his gloves tightly around his hands. With a determination that he'd never felt before, the blonde rang the doorbell. A few moments later Sephiroth opened it, looking a bit surprised when he saw who it was at first. But then a smirk replaced his features._

" _Cloud, what a pleasant surprise to see you here." He said in a low tone that sounded creepy._

" _We need to talk." Cloud got out without wavering once._

" _Ah, this could be interesting." Sephiroth opened the door further, "Please come in."_

 _Trying to remain as calm as possible, Cloud walked in front of the man to his living room. He turned around quickly, feeling a little bit better about being able to see him._

" _Would you like something to drink?" Sephiroth offered while pouring himself something from his minibar in the opposite corner._

" _I don't trust anything that you've prepared for me."_

" _A wise decision." He turned back around and took a sip, "But for the record, I wasn't going to try and drug you this time." Another sip, "So, you wanted to talk?"_

" _Yeah." Cloud didn't hesitate and pulled the gun from his bag, aiming it at Sephiroth._

 _The man seemed hardly fazed by it. Cloud had secretly hoped the man would be surprised and perhaps even show some fear. It angered him that he didn't._

" _This is going to end right here and now." Cloud claimed._

" _So you've finally gathered the courage to come here and point a gun at me. But think about this. Do you really think it's a good idea to shoot down Shinra's poster boy?"_

" _I don't care about Shinra."_

" _No, I guess you don't. But how about your boyfriend then? How would he feel when he hears you've killed one of his friends?"_

" _Don't you dare talk about Zack as your friend! I bet you don't even know what friendship means you sick bastard!"_

" _Perhaps." Sephiroth conceded, "But I'm sure Zack would tell you otherwise."_

 _Cloud pulled back the safety notch on the gun. This conversation was going nowhere, and he didn't really come here to talk anyway._

" _You might want to think about what you're about to do. If you pull that trigger, you'll be a murderer for the rest of your life."_

" _Better a murderer of a sadistic paedophile than being a terrified victim." Cloud said with determination._

 _The way the blonde had spoken the words actually made Sephiroth pause. He was starting to see that the young man was serious, and that he might be very capable of actually pulling that trigger. He placed the glass back on the minibar and adopted a more cautious stance._

" _Now Cloud. Think about this carefully."_

" _I have. I have thought about it for days and nights. I've thought about all the consequences. I know that killing you might make me feel guilty, I even know that I might lose Zack in the end after all if he finds out." He narrowed his eyes in determination then, "But I know for a fact that I'll at least be living the rest of my life without having to fear you."_

 _Without another word Cloud pulled the trigger. The bullet flew quickly and found its mark with the first shot. Sephiroth simply had no time to respond as the bullet pierced his heart. There was no dramatic death scene. There was no helpless pleading for his life. Instead, his body fell down in a boneless heap and didn't move anymore. Then there was silence._

 _Cloud looked at the body with a blank expression on his face. He'd expected to feel guilty for taking another life, but he oddly didn't. He still felt angry. Though Sephiroth had started to become a little worried at the end, never throughout this exchange had he shown fear. How satisfying would it have been if Sephiroth for once had felt what it was like to be paralysed with fear?_

 _But he hadn't. The son of a bitch never felt fear, and it was written on his face even in death. Cloud clenched his hands and growled slightly. He advanced on the body and started kicking its face. The face that haunted his memories, the face that kept him from being with Zack like he wanted to, the face that didn't show an ounce of fear where he himself had felt an abundance of it for ten years._

 _After quite a few kicks Cloud was panting, not so much from exertion, but rather from the emotions he was feeling. The anger was gone now, to be replaced by something akin to satisfaction. The face was gone. He was now truly certain that Sephiroth was dead._

"After that I quickly left the house. I stopped by my own apartment to quickly change and then went over to Zack." Cloud finished.

Tseng and Reno had been listening with rapt attention. In particular Tseng noted how he had been for the most part correct in his earlier assumptions. First off it was clear how Cloud had planned out this murder. Not only had be put himself in a situation in which he could use Zack's gun without the latter noticing, but in his story he had also explained why so little evidence had been found on the scene. The gloves made sure he left no fingerprints behind, and the beanie prevented his wild hair from being identified should he have been seen by anyone. It also made it less likely for his hair to be left behind at the scene.

Another interesting thing to note was why Cloud chose to kick his face in after he'd already committed the murder. It was the face that had haunted him, so he had felt a strong urge to replace that.

There was still one thing that Tseng was curious about, so he asked, "Did it help you? Killing Sephiroth I mean?"

"Yes." Cloud said without a doubt, "For the first time in the past ten years I felt free. I knew I would never have to see Sephiroth again. I didn't feel afraid to be with Zack anymore. As a matter of fact, I was able to finally have sex with him that very night. I was still nervous, but at those moments I simply thought of Sephiroth and his bashed up face and the nerves would slowly go away. Our relationship has been going very well ever since."

"And now we're going to have to arrest you, yo." Reno said solemnly, feeling sympathetic to the blonde.

"It's okay." Cloud replied equally solemn, "You're just doing your job."

0o0o0

After the interrogation, Cloud was officially arrested and taken to one of the holding cells at the station until his trial. Normally the cells were meant for temporary incarceration while the police could determine to what jail the criminal should be send to awaiting trial. But with the pressure Shinra was putting behind the case, Cloud's trial wouldn't be too far off.

He didn't make a scene out of it. It wasn't so much that his fight was gone, but rather that he had resigned himself to his fate. Though he had planned Sephiroth's murder in such a way that there would be a minimal chance that he'd be caught, he knew that it was a possibility from the beginning. He also knew that it might ultimately drive him and Zack apart instead of becoming closer.

Speaking of Zack, it was barely half an hour after Cloud had been locked away that his boyfriend was suddenly standing in front of his cell. Cloud looked up at the one who meant so much for him, not really knowing what to expect and afraid to speak up.

Zack looked back in silence, searching his boyfriend's face as if searching for something. Whether he found it or not, he eventually spoke up softly, "Hey."

"Hey." Cloud replied back, though didn't dare to speak more.

"Tseng told me everything." He revealed with a pained expression, "Why didn't you ever tell me what he did to you?"

"Would you have believed me if I had told you your boss and friend molested me ten years ago?"

Zack sighed, "I guess not."

"Then you have your answer right there."

"I still cannot believe it." He shook his head, "I cannot believe he did all that, and that he did it to you, and that you killed him.'

"I understand Zack." Cloud said sympathetically.

"Was any of this ever real?" Zack said in an accusing tone of voice, "Did you really love me or did you just use me to get close to him?"

"What are you saying Zack?" Cloud replied in shock, "Of course I love you. I didn't even really remember what'd happened or know he was your friend when I first met you."

"But why did you have to kill him? Couldn't you have just stayed away from him?"

"Because I didn't want to lose you."

Silence fell for a brief moment as Zack tried to comprehend what his boyfriend was trying to say, but he simply couldn't wrap his head around it. It was all so confusing, "How were you going to lose me?"

"You know firsthand how much time I needed for everything in our relationship Zack. I'm very grateful for your patience and understanding, but I also knew that I would never be able to be with you like I wanted to as long as Sephiroth was a part of my life. I also knew that, despite your patience, it would eventually run out."

Zack shook his head, "You don't know that for sure. I would have waited for you."

"Even if the wait was fruitless Zack?" Cloud challenged, "I know you. And I know how much physical contact means to you. I know that you simply wouldn't have been able to bear not getting that from me forever. You would have left me eventually, or worse, you would have cheated on me."

Zack was growing frustrated. Though he knew deep inside that there was a truth to his boyfriend's words, he also wasn't convinced that Cloud would have never been able to take that step. He just didn't know what to think anymore. He could sympathise with Cloud's plight, but the fact that this concerned his messed up boyfriend killing his even more messed up friend and boss made him unable to think.

Seeing Zack's growing frustration, Cloud decided to stand up from the cot he'd been sitting on and walk up to the door. He gently grasped the iron bars and spoke in a soft and soothing tone, "I understand that you're confused Zack. And I don't know what I can do to stop it. All I can do is ask for your forgiveness. I did what I thought was right for me."

At that point Zack simply couldn't take it anymore. He tore himself away from the door and walked away without another word. Cloud watching him go with a sad expression on his face, but didn't call after him. All he could do now was pray that Zack was going to forgive him. Even if that was all what he was going to get it would be alright.

0o0o0

Cloud's trial took place four days after he'd been arrested. During that time he'd had no other visitors besides the attorney that had been assigned to him. Sadly, that also meant that Zack hadn't come back.

For a long while he had hoped that his boyfriend - or was it ex-boyfriend now? – would come back eventually. But the more time went by that he didn't, the more he lost hope. But instead of pining after him, Cloud managed to resign himself to this fate. The fear of losing Zack had always been there, even before they had started dating, so he had had a long time to prepare himself for it. He was disappointed, but not as much as he would have been if he had expected Zack to forgive him right away.

He looked up when he heard keys unlock the door to his cell. A moment later Reno appeared, "It's time, yo."

Cloud nodded and stood up, dressed now in orange overalls that served as his prison garb. Before leaving the cell he had to extend his arms so the officer could cuff them. It wasn't like the blonde had any intention of running away or causing trouble, but it was required protocol whenever a prisoner was being transported. Reno did so calmly before taking him gently, but firmly, by the upper arm to guide him outside and to where Rude was waiting for them with the car.

The drive to the courthouse proceeded in silence. Rude was driving, Reno was in the passenger's seat and Cloud sat silently in the back. Every once in a while the redhead would turn his head to look at the blonde. He once again felt a wave of sympathy come over him. There was no getting around him being found guilty for first degree murder. This could potentially put him in jail for life. However, his motivation for his actions could drastically bring that sentence down. It might even be possible that he would go home free, though it was very unlikely.

Cloud knew this, and Reno had expected him to be emotional about it, either through resisting or crying. But even though the blonde was silent, he didn't see a defeated young man sitting there. Instead, he saw someone who had resigned himself to his fate. There might not be any resistance, but there was still some kind of strength radiating off of him.

The drive to the courthouse took only ten minutes. Rude parked the car in front of the building and Reno once again escorted their prisoner. They walked up the steps and through the large wooden doors. Reno's face lightened up a bit when he saw someone he wanted to see.

"I have a surprise for you." He murmured to Cloud, making the blonde look back at him with a frown.

Reno didn't say anything more though, but simply continued walking towards some benches where several people, young men and women varying ages, were waiting.

"Reno!" One of the young women called out and stepped forward.

"Glad you could make it Tifa." He greeted her.

The young woman, now identified as Tifa, looked towards Cloud, "Is he the one?" She asked.

"Yeah. This is Cloud." Reno confirmed.

"What's going on here?" Cloud wondered in confusion, "Who are you?"

"I'm sorry. My name is Tifa." The girl said with a small smile, "I want to thank you for what you did."

"Thank me?"

"Yeah…" She shifted her foot a bit uncomfortably, but continued anyway, "He got me too."

Cloud instantly understood what she was talking about. He instantly felt some sort of deeper understanding only those who'd suffered Sephiroth's abuse could feel. Though they all had a different story to tell, they at least could all understand one another.

"As a matter of fact, he got all of us." She gestured with her hand towards the small group, who were actually all looking at Cloud with gratitude, "And we're here today to support you. We're all going to testify."

"Oh o-okay…thank you." Cloud stammered, feeling a bit overwhelmed by it.

"It's the least we could do. You have no idea how much you've helped all of us by killing him."

Cloud nodded, though he did have an idea. After all, it had helped himself a lot.

"We need to get going now." Reno cut off the conversation, "We'll see you in a bit."

Tifa nodded and made room for the two to pass through. The others also stepped aside, murmuring thanks and reassurances as they walked by. Reno could see his prisoner was flustered by it and couldn't help but smile a little. He and Tseng had actually arranged for Tifa and her little group to be part of this trial. He had personally told her to show up early if she wanted a chance to talk to him beforehand. He also wanted to know that Cloud had support.

After leaving the group Reno led the blonde to a separate area. Normally the accused had to wait in the hallway where they'd seen Tifa, but for those who'd committed a serious crime there was a separate area. Cloud's attorney, a man called Reeve Tuesti, was already there with Tseng.

"We're in luck." Reeve said, "Judge Faremis is a good man. He'll hear you out and judge fairly. We might even be able to go for five years."

Five years. It still sounded like a lifetime even though it was a very low punishment for first degree murder.

Cloud nodded, though he didn't want to hope too much.

"We saw Tifa and the others on the way in, yo." Reno told them.

"We know. We actually witnessed a rather interesting scene before you arrived." Tseng said.

"Oh?" Reno asked in interest.

"President Shinra is here too. He's actually the one representing the prosecution. He tried to talk Tifa and her group out of testifying in the case. Or rather, he tried bribing them."

"No way! What did they say?"

"They refused." Tseng replied with a rare smile, "They said that their problem lies with Sephiroth, not with Shinra, and should therefore testify for the one who solved that problem. They have no intention of bringing down the company he represented down with it, so its president should not worry."

Reno whistled before smiling, "I knew Tifa was one tough cookie, but to diss president Shinra of all people really takes some guts, yo."

"It's a good thing she did." Reeve seconded, "They are our most important witnesses in our case."

Their conversation was interrupted by the door that was being opened. A court guard appeared, telling them that they were ready for them to come in.

Reeve turned to face Cloud one last time, shooting him a reassuring smile, "Don't be nervous. Just follow the plan we've made and we should be fine."

Cloud, who been silent so far, simply nodded again. He was in fact a bit nervous. Though he had resigned himself to going to prison, he wasn't looking forward to it. Besides, there was this insecurity of how high his sentence was going to be. Was he going to be locked away for life, or would he get out after several years?

He swallowed and followed his attorney through the door and into the courtroom. He could see that it was already filled up. President Shinra was seated next to the prosecutor. He didn't look very pleased, which wasn't odd considering what Tseng had told them. The benches at the back of the courtroom held quite a few people, some who Cloud knew and some who he didn't.

There was Tifa's group sitting together on the left side of the room. They were all still shooting him reassuring smiles that made him feel a little bit better. The group was intermixed with several adults the blonde couldn't imagine were former victims, so what they were doing there he didn't know. There was one who stood out among them though. It was a woman with long brown hair tied back into a high ponytail. She was looking at him with a mix of hurt and interest, as if trying to gauge what kind of man he was.

On the right side of the room were the people affiliated with Shinra mostly. Most notably there was Zack. Cloud hadn't known beforehand whether he would be there, but it only seemed logical that he was, since it was his gun that had been used to commit the crime. Sadly, his former boyfriend didn't look at him. No doubt he was still angry and confused. Cloud could understand that, but that didn't mean he didn't feel disappointed and a little bit hurt.

Next to Zack were Sephiroth's two other friends. Genesis was looking at him. His expression was one of open hostility. Considering that he had been the closest to Sephiroth out of all of them, it wasn't strange that he felt the most resentment towards his killer. Angeal on the other hand had adopted a much more different expression. It was difficult to read. He didn't look angry, but not supportive either. It was more like he was neutral.

It wasn't long until Cloud felt all those eyes on him and started to feel uncomfortable. He quickly looked away and found his seat. Once there Reno moved to undo the handcuffs before he and Tseng also took a seat at the benches.

Luckily they didn't have to wait for more than a few moments before the Judge entered from the door opposite the one Cloud had gone through. He felt his nerves increase and swallowed again. There was no stopping this now.

The trial proceeded as planned. The prosecutor presented the charges and their demand for punishment, which was life long in prison. Reeve then pleaded guilty, though also claimed that the circumstances of the murder would cause for a lower sentence of a maximum of five years.

The trial then proceeded with both parties presenting their cases. The prosecutor did his best to portray Sephiroth as an outstanding member of society, using president Shinra and Sephiroth's former colleagues to vouch for his personality. Reeve used his former victims to paint a different picture using the evidence Tseng and his team had found and analysed and calling Tifa and the others as witnesses to the stand.

Naturally Tseng and Reno were also called to the stand, telling the court how the investigation had proceeded and how the evidence was obtained. At some point Zack was called to testify, repeating what he knew about the night of the murder. Cloud wanted to say that it didn't hurt him that Zack didn't look at him even once, but the fact was that it felt like a knife had been stabbed in his heart. The fact that Zack basically testified against him, even though he was simply telling the truth, didn't help either.

Zack's testimony turned troublesome at some point. Perhaps it was some sort of last ditch effort, but no one had expected Shinra's attorney to try and put the blame back on Zack. He claimed that the young man had killed Sephiroth and now tried to put the blame on Cloud. Tifa and the others had simply been talked into fabricating some ridiculous story of the systematic abuse Sephiroth had caused.

For a little while it seemed as if the Judge was buying the story, but luckily Reeve was easily able to repair the damage. With the irrefutable evidence in the form of the photos and videos, and the way Zack had been fully cooperative during the case there was no leg for that theory to stand on. Zack seemed a little shocked when he was finally allowed to leave the stand though.

The most surprising witness was the woman Cloud had noticed before. It appeared that her name was Lucrecia Crescent, and that she was Sephiroth's mother. Her testimony was twofold. On one end she provided yet another perspective on the victim, while at the same time her expertise as a psychologist gave some insight into Cloud's motivations.

During her testimony her eyes often moved towards the blonde who'd killed her son. What surprised Cloud the most was that she didn't look at him with hatred. Instead, she looked almost apologetic. Judging from her testimony she had known about her son's activities and had chosen not to stop it because she'd felt powerless to do so. Cloud felt a small spark of hatred towards the woman. If it wasn't for her then he wouldn't be sitting here today. But whenever she shot him another look, with eyes begging him to forgive her while at the same time telling him that she forgave him for killing her son, he felt the anger dissipate.

With all the testimonies and presenting of the evidence, the trial had dragged on for quite a bit. They had even taken a ten-minute recess after the first two hours had passed. They were now coming up to the next two-hour mark, but thankfully they were getting towards the end. Only Cloud's own testimony remained.

Cloud had also never imagined that his trial could take so long. He was guilty as charged, so he felt like they shouldn't have take so much time in convicting him. Presenting all the evidence and hearing all the people involved seemed a bit convoluted to him. Right now as well he was just going to take the stand and repeat most of what had already been told.

After his testimony there were the closing statements, in which both sides basically summarised what had been presented and used that as arguments for their plea. After that was another break, during which the Judge could review all the evidence and decide on what punishment to give the accused. Cloud waited with his attorney and Tseng – sans Reno this time – in the side room again. It was actually rather nice to be cut off from all the other people. He couldn't bear having to see that hostile look Genesis gave him, or the way Zack ignored him. Even the look Lucrecia had been shooting him was getting on his nerves. On one end he was nervous about his actual punishment, but on the other he just wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.

It was only fifteen more minutes before they were called back into the courtroom again. Cloud nervously sat down. This was going to be it.

Judge Faremis entered from the other side room again. He took his place at the desk and called for order, tapping with his hammer a couple times. Once the buzz had died down completely he began to speak.

"Based on the evidence and testimonies presented here today, this court has come to a decision concerning the punishment for defendant Cloud Strife in the case of Shinra versus Cloud Strife." He said formally, "It was already predetermined that the defendant is guilty to the charge of first degree murder, and this trial served to evaluate the circumstances of the act in order to determine its severity and thus decide upon a fitting punishment."

He then turned his attention to the nervous blonde in the defendant's seat, "Cloud Strife, by the power and responsibility this court has invested in me I sentence you to five years of prison. The sentence is to be carried out at Midgar-Kalm Penitentiary until the end of this period or if the bail-sum of 100,000 gil has been met. Is your punishment clear?"

"Y-yes sir." Cloud stammered, hardly able to believe his attorney's plea had been granted.

"Very well then. This court is adjourned."

With another smack of the hammer it was finally over. The prosecutor came over to congratulate Tseng on his victory, but didn't linger otherwise. The crowd was also dispersed quickly as a guard walked up to the blonde to cuff him again and prepare him for transport to MKP. But not before Reeve turned to Cloud with a smile first.

"You're in luck. Judge Faremis clearly sympathised with your story. MKP is one of the lower security prisons. It shouldn't be too bad and you'll probably even be able to get some probation time if you're doing well."

"Y-yeah…" Cloud mumbled, still barely registering what was being said to him, "Thank you. For everything."

"It's my job, but also my pleasure. Good luck out there."

Cloud nodded. He would have liked to stay for a little while longer, but the guard was supposed to take him away now. He meekly allowed his hands to be cuffed again, and when he exited the courthouse the car that would transport him was already there. It was time to say goodbye for the next five years.

At that particular moment the blonde only wished for one thing; that he would have been able to talk to Zack before having to leave.

0o0o0

Zack didn't really remember whether it had been this cold on this day exactly one year ago. He pulled up the collar of his jacket some more, keeping the chill wind from his neck as he stood waiting on the parking lot of Midgar-Kalm Penitentiary.

A few moments later the front door of the facility opened and a familiar person with spiky blonde hair stepped out. Cloud was dressed in casual clothes; unlike the orange overalls Zack'd last seen him in during the trial. It almost made this seem normal.

Almost.

Though Zack made no move, Cloud easily spotted him and slowly moved towards him. He stopped a few feet in front of his ex-boyfriend, simply looking at him with an unreadable expression, while Zack looked back in the same way.

Neither really knew what to say, until Cloud decided to speak up, "They said someone had bailed me out." He stated softly, "Was it you?"

"No." Zack said simply, "There's no way I'd be able to fork up 100,000 gil like that."

"Then who-?"

"Tifa and her group got the money together. Apparently one of Seph's victims was a girl named Yuffie Kisaragi, ambassador Godo Kisaragi's daughter. He paid for most of it, but the others saved up during the past year to get enough."

"Oh…"

Cloud didn't know what more to say. Even though Zack was here, the fact that he wasn't the one to pay the bail hurt him a little bit. It wasn't that he'd expected Zack to pay for all of it, but rather that he didn't give any indication of pitching in. But if he didn't want to bail his ex-boyfriend out, then why was he here?

"Why are you here then?"

Zack sighed deeply and raked a hand through his hair before speaking, "I've been thinking a lot over the past year."

"About what?"

"Us mostly." Though Zack paused for a moment, Cloud didn't question him this time, allowing him to elaborate whenever he was ready, "I was really angry and confused when I found out you were the one who had killed Seph. I could sympathise with your reasons, but at the same time couldn't get over the fact that you had used my gun to kill my friend. And then I even had to face Shinra trying to put the blame one me."

When Zack's next silence dragged a little longer, Cloud softly asked, "And now?"

"I'm not sure yet." He admitted, "I quit Shinra and found a new job. I've got a whole new life now, but I'm not sure whether you should be in it. I know I still love you, but I'm also scared of you."

"Scared? Why would you have to be scared of me?"

"Because you've murdered someone Cloud. You had the guts to grab a gun and pull the trigger. What's there to stop you from doing it a second time?"

Cloud frowned in confusion, "Why would I have a reason to kill anyone?"

"You might not have right now. But what if we got back together and just don't work out in the end. Will I have to face you shooting me as well?"

Cloud's eyes grew in shock at that moment, "Zack, please no, don't say that!" He exclaimed, "Sephiroth did something terrible to me and it prevented me from being with you. I wouldn't kill you for breaking up with me if that's how things are going to turn out."

"How can I be so sure?" Zack challenged with the same heat Cloud had displayed.

Taken aback by the question, Cloud deflated and looked at his feet. He still answered though, his voice soft and sincere, "Because you have given me the greatest gift you ever could have. You have been extremely patient with me. Even when it frustrated you, you would hold yourself back for me. If it wasn't for you I would have never been able to get as far as I have." He then looked back up to face Zack, "I am extremely grateful to you."

"So what if I turn around now and never see you again?"

Cloud shrugged, "Then that's your choice to make. I always knew that I might lose you at some point, either because your patience would run out with me or because I killed Sephiroth. I won't blame you and respect your decision."

Zack looked hard at the blonde, trying to read his expression. What he saw was sincerity. With that single look Zack knew that Cloud had told the truth.

He let out a deep sigh, "How can you be so accepting of this?"

"I've spent ten years of my life denying what had happened to me, and look where it got me. I was reduced to a whimpering kid whenever you even so much as put an arm around my shoulders. When I decided that I would face my fears and kill Sephiroth, I also decided to stop lying to myself. I would not hold up any pretence of being able to keep you by my side. That also meant accepting your decision to leave me." Cloud paused to sigh before continuing, "Also, this past year I've been granted the opportunity to start studying to become a mechanical engineer. I want to continue my studies and start a new life. I don't want to go back to being a simple delivery boy, struggling to make ends meet."

Zack actually barked a short laugh at that, causing Cloud to look at him in confusion, "And here you are claiming that you would have never been able to fully overcome your fears without getting rid of their source. You're so weird."

Cloud's expression softened, "I guess I am."

Letting his own expression soften as well, Zack finally lowered his defensive posture. He opened his arms in a gesture that clearly indicated that he wanted a hug from the blonde.

Cloud smiled. He eagerly took the final two steps and wrapped his own arms around the other's chest. He felt so happy at that moment. It was only a hug, but Cloud took it as a sign that Zack at least forgave him. They would probably need some time to get comfortable around each other again. Or at least Zack needed to become more comfortable around Cloud. But that was okay. Cloud was willing to wait for him in the same way his friend had waited for himself.

0o0o0

 **A/N:** And on that note this story is finished. It was a very fun little side project to do asides Fractured Love. I got the idea after a dream. The only image that I remember was from a naked Cloud bound to a chair looking very afraid. As the emotions from the image remained I started toying with it, and this story was born. A lot of things just fell into place and I had soon made a short list of scenes in which I wanted to tell the story.

I felt that I should be able to write it as a long one-shot. But as I got to writing I soon noticed that I needed more words than I thought to narrate the story. That's what ultimately made me decide to serialise it. And even then it turned out to be much longer than expected (again, I'm terrible at estimating how many words I need…).

But as I got further into the story I got more and more invested into the characters. I threw in some character development I had never even thought about putting in there. The dilemma that Tseng and Reno had to face, along with Cissnei giving a premise for it, really added much to this story in my view. I'm a bit sad I couldn't do the same for Rude and Elena.

In later chapters I even discovered, this chapter in particular, that I could write a dynamic dialogue that isn't constantly interrupted with gestures, movements, but more importantly longer internal dialogue, thought processes, and emotions of the characters. I know that I tend to do that a lot, and it frankly annoys me a bit. It makes me feel like I don't really know what I'm doing and opt for blatantly telling it to my readers instead of letting them just figure it out from what is being said instead, and beefing up my word count in the process. Hopefully with this as my example, I can hope to work on that and make future chapters and stories even more engaging.

Well, that's enough rambling from me. For now in the future you can expect to see Fractured Love continuing to be updated every two weeks. I'll start working on another story in the mean time. I'll catch you then folks!


End file.
